Former Congress leader Jitin Prasada, BJP leaders Chhatrapal Singh, Paltu Ram, and four others are set to take oath as the Uttar Pradesh government as Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expands his cabinet ahead of the 2022 state assembly elections.
LIVE UPDATES: Jitin Prasada, Chhatrapal Gangwar, Paltu Ram Set to Take Oath
Ahead of the upcoming assembly elections in the state, the Bharatiya Janata Party is attempting to balance caste and regional aspirations and appease the non-Yadav OBCs and non-Jatav SCs, who supported the party in the last three elections.
Jitin Prasad, Chhatrapal Singh Gangwar, Paltu Ram, Sangeeta Balwant, Sanjeev Kumar Gaur, Dinesh Khatik and Dharamvir Singh are going to take oath. Sanjay Nishad and baby Rani Maurya, whose names were also coming up for expansion, were dropped at the last minute, told sources. News18.
Prasad is being inducted as a cabinet minister, while others will take over as ministers of state in the UP cabinet. Paltu Ram from SC community will be Minister of State from Balrampur, Kurmi, Chhatarpal Gangwar from Bareilly; Sangeeta Balwant Bind from Bind, Ghazipur; Dharamveer Prajapati of Agra, Sanjeev Kumar Gond ST of Sonbhadra and Dinesh Khatik of SC from Meerut.
Officials said that the swearing-in ceremony is scheduled at the Gandhi Auditorium of Raj Bhavan. The first officials remained silent about the number and names of the ministers to be sworn in.
The names were shortlisted last month by Union Home Minister Amit Shah at a 3.5-hour meeting held at his residence, which was attended by BJP chief JP Nadda, Yogi Adityanath and senior party functionaries Sunil Bansal and Swatantra Dev Singh.
At present, there are 23 cabinet ministers, nine ministers of independent charge and 22 ministers of state in the Yogi cabinet, that is, the total number of ministers is 54. Six ministerial posts were vacant.
After the formation of the state government on 19 March 2017, the Yogi government expanded the cabinet on 22 August 2019. During that time there were 56 members in his cabinet. Three ministers have died due to Kovid-19. Recently, Minister of State Vijay Kumar Kashyap passed away, while Minister Chetan Chauhan and Minister Kamal Rani Varun died in the first wave of Covid-19. In the first cabinet expansion, six ministers with independent charge were administered the oath of office.
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