LUCKNOW: After leading the saffron brigade to a historic win with a two-thirds majority in the recently-held Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, Yogi Adityanath, in all probability, will be sworn-in for his second consecutive term as the chief minister on March 25.
The venue for the oath-taking ceremony will be Atal Bihari Vajpayee Stadium in state capital Lucknow with a capacity of 50,000.
Top BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah, defence minister Rajnath Singh, party president JP Nadda, chief ministers of BJP-ruled states, office bearers of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) etc. are expected to attend the ceremony. The invitation will also be extended to top opposition leaders as well, including three former chief ministers--Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati, Samajwadi Party (SP) patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav.
From the Congress’ side, party president Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, are also on the list of invitees, said the sources. Moreover, around 45,000 guests are likely to attend the ceremony. The party has made arrangements for thousands of beneficiaries of welfare schemes to attend the swearing-in ceremony. A respectable chunk of beneficiaries consolidated in favour of BJP in the recently-concluded assembly elections.
Meanwhile, as per the highly placed sources, Yogi Adityanath 2.0 government in Uttar Pradesh is likely to be formed along the lines of the Modi cabinet at the Centre. The new cabinet is likely to comprise bureaucrats who won elections on BJP tickets. Even the number of women ministers is likely to go up this time.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has appointed home minister Amit Shah and national vice-president Raghubar Das to oversee the election of the leader of the legislative party. Speculations are rife that Asim Arun, a former IPS officer who defeated three-time Samajwadi Party MLA Anil Kumar Dohrey from Kannauj Sadar may make it to the Yogi cabinet. The former Kanpur top cop had taken voluntary retirement from service in January and joined the BJP.
Former IAS officer-turned MLC AK Sharma is among the probable ministers in the Yogi cabinet. Having served as PM Modi's secretary when the latter was Gujarat's chief minister, Sharma came down to UP last year and was appointed party vice-president of the state unit last year.
Former Enforcement Directorate joint directorRajeshwar Singh’s name is also doing the rounds. The former probe agency officer, who headed investigations into the high profile cases like the 2G spectrum allocation case, the 2010 Commonwealth Games case, won the Sarojini Nagar seat in Lucknow, defeating Samajwadi Party's candidate Abhishek Mishra.
Moreover, the new Yogi cabinet is likely to have fresh faces taking major policy decisions for the state. Amit Agrawal, Baby Rani Maurya, Anjula Mahaur, Rajesh Tripathi, Krishna Paswan are the BJP MLAs who could make the cut. The winning candidates from allies like Nishad Party chief Dr Sanjay Nishad and Apna Dal (S) chief Anurpiya Patel’s husband Ashish Singh Patel might also be sworn-in as minister.