LUCKNOW: Yogi Adityanath—the five-time MP of the Bharatiya Janata Party and a hindutva mascot backed by the Sang Pariwar—was sworn-in as the 21st Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh on Sunday at the sprawling Smriti Upvan in Lucknow.
His 47-member team, a reflection of BJP chief Amit Shah’s social engineering formula to win UP, was also administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Ram Naik.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi exuded confidence that the new team would be able to turn Uttar Pradesh into ‘Uttam Pradesh’.
After Yogi Adityanath, state BJP chief Keshav Maurya and BJP national vice-president Dr Dinesh Sharma were sworn-in as the two deputy CMs at the ceremony which was attended approximately by over a lakh people including PM Narendra Modi, BJP national President Amit Shah, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh along with a number of senior cabinet ministers, CMs and other dignitaries.
In consonance with Shah’s UP formula, the upper castes, non-Yadav backwards and non-Jatav Dalits seem to have got a fair share in the newly-constituted Cabinet while Yadavs and Muslims, who had a sizeable presence in the previous Akhilesh government, have been cautiously left out with just one member included from both the communities.
CM Yogi’s Cabinet is seen as a cautious bid to strike a caste and regional balance in a diverse and humongous state which is considered one of the most politically vibrant states of the country.
The 47-member Cabinet, including a CM, two deputy CMs, 22 cabinet ministers, nine Ministers of State (MoS) with Independent Charge and 13 state ministers comes out as a beguiling blend of all castes and inclusive of all regions. A surprise drop was Pankaj Singh, the first-time BJP MLA from Noida and son of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
While five women have made it to the Yogi Cabinet, seven turncoats and two allies—one each from the Apna Dal and the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP)—have also been included.
Congress turncoat and BJP MLA from Lucknow Cantt Rita Bahuguna Joshi, is the only woman Cabinet minister in the Yogi-camp. Joshi had trounced Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav’s younger daughter-in-law, Aparna Yadav in the recently concluded UP polls.
Besides, BJP women’s wing national chief, Swati Singh has been named as Minister of State with Independent Charge.
The other woman MoS is Anupama Jaiswal, an MLA from Bahraich. Two other women ministers are Gulabo Devi and Archana Pandey who have taken over as ministers of state.
The new state Cabinet seems slightly tilted in favour of the upper castes with 26 sawarn faces in it, including the CM himself. Among the rest 20 ministers, 15 come from backward classes, including a Deputy Chief Minister Keshav
Maurya. Five are Dalits with the lone Mulsim face being ex-Ranji player Mohsin Raza. Understandably, the Cabinet showcases a slight domination of the Eastern UP region.
Fifiteen ministers are from Purvanchal which is not only the CM’s ‘Karmabhoomi’ but also of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. From Modi’s parliamentary constituency Varanasi, two MLAs—Anil Rajbhar and Neelkhanth Tiwari—have made it to the state Cabinet.
Twelve ministerial berths have gone to the MLAs from western UP. Nine members including a Dy CM are from the Awadh region, four are from Central UP and a lone face, Mannu Kori, hails from the backward Bundelkhand region.
Committing an all-round development of the state and reiterating it as his party’s sole mission, Modi assured the UP electorate, especially the youth that new opportunities would emerge in the state.
“Our unwavering efforts to create a 'Bhavya' & 'Divya' Bharat continue. India's Jan Shakti is powering the rise of a new & transformed India,” said the PM’s tweet on the occasion.