Yogi Adityanath on Friday took oath as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh for the second time in a row in a grand ceremony organized in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Along with him, prominent backward caste leader Keshav Prasad Maurya was also sworn in as deputy CM for a second term, while BJP’s Brahmin face Brajesh Pathak became Yogi’s other deputy. Besides this, 52 MLAs also took oath as ministers of the state cabinet, which came together for their first meeting soon after the grand ceremony.
Uttar Pradesh governor Anandiben Patel administered the oath to Adityanath at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium in Lucknow. Among top BJP leaders were union home minister Amit Shah, BJP national president JP Nadda, defense minister Rajnath Singh, Haryana CM ML Khattar, Himachal Pradesh CM Jairam Thakur among others.
Adityanath will address his first cabinet meeting with additional chief secretaries, principal secretaries and all top officials at Lucknow’s Yojna Bhawan on Saturday, March 26. He will also attend the swearing-in ceremony of the pro tem speaker at Raj Bhavan.
yogi back on top chair
His return to power is billed by many as a “historic” moment. Ahead of his swearing-in, BJP leader Ravi Kishan said Yogi’s return to power was a historic moment. He said that now the Ram temple was built but only ‘Ram Rajya’ was needed. After the 2017 assembly elections, Adityanath was considered an unlikely choice for CM. The BJP had just won a landslide victory and many did not consider the saffron-clad poster boy to be the top one for Hindutva. At the time, he was considered a riot instigator and was often accused of making provocative remarks against Muslims.
But this time his appointment is not a surprise. Now, with the BJP returning to power in four of the five states and Sadhu’s massive victory in UP, Adityanath has cemented his place. Several political observers have predicted a bigger role for him in the BJP in the years to come. The 48-year-old is the first chief minister to return to power after completing a full five-year term in three-and-a-half decades.
He was born as Ajay Singh Bisht on 5 June 1972 in Panchur, Pauri Garhwal, now Uttarakhand. He left his home in 1990 to join the campaign for the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya and became a disciple of Mahant Avaidyanath of the Gorakhnath temple in Gorakhpur. , After Avaidyanath’s death in 2014, he took over as the head of the Gorakhnath ‘Math’, a position he still holds. Adityanath went to school in his native village and later completed his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University.
Entering politics at the age of 28, he was the youngest Lok Sabha member to win from Gorakhpur. His decisions reaffirmed his image as a Hindutva mascot after becoming CM for the first time in 2017. He is known for his decisions on banning illegal slaughterhouses along with cracking down on cow slaughter; Also the highly controversial ‘Love Jihad’ law. He has often been accused of making a deliberate attempt to polarize the state during the 2022 election campaign. He spoke of an 80-20 split of votes, referred to by many as the Hindu-Muslim ratio in the state, even though the CM denied it.
two legislators
Maurya, a prominent OBC leader, is back as Yogi’s deputy CM for the second time despite losing the recent election. But, his consistency speaks volumes about his popularity and the hold on his community, whose support was instrumental in the BJP’s return to power. The 52-year-old lost to Sirathu by nearly 7,000 votes, but the party has reposed its faith in him.
He comes from a humble background and, like Yogi, his political career begins with the Ram Mandir movement. Party insiders say that Maurya helped his parents with agricultural work, ran a tea stall and also sold newspapers in his early days. a “pracharak” For 18 years of VHP and Bajrang Dal, he first won from Sirathu in 2012 and came into limelight in 2013, when he led a protest against the arrival of a Christian missionary at a college in Allahabad.
The other deputy CM is the prominent Brahmin face Brajesh Pathak, who has replaced Dinesh Sharma. In the previous Adityanath-led cabinet, Pathak served as the Law Minister. In the election, Pathak won from Lucknow Cantonment assembly constituency. He had joined the BJP from Mayawati’s BSP before the 2017 assembly elections. He is considered a strong leader and was also called for campaigning by many candidates. He started with student politics in 1989 and was the President of Lucknow University in 1990.
Minister in Yogi’s 2.0 government
There are a total of 52 names in the list of new ministers in the Adityanath-led government, while the central leadership may add some more. According to the instructions of Prime Minister Modi, while maintaining the regional balance of caste, priority will be given to the educated and grassroots leaders of different classes and regions.
There are 18 cabinet ministers, 20 ministers of state as well as 14 MoS (Independent Charge). The list includes 20 OBC faces, five women, two leaders of allies, seven Brahmins, six Kshatriyas, four Vaishyas, eight Dalits, two Bhumihar community leaders, as well as one leader each from Muslim, Kayastha and Sikh communities.
When it comes to regional balance, 16 ministers are from western UP, 15 from Purvanchal, six each from central and Awadh region, five from Rohilkhand and four from Bundelkhand.
Besides the two deputy CMs Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak, the list of ministers include the names of Surya Pratap Shahi, Suresh Kumar Khanna, Swatantra Dev Singh, Baby Rani Maurya, Laxmi Narayan Chaudhary, Jaiveer Singh, Dharmpal Singh, Nand Gopal ‘Nandi ‘, Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary, Anil Rajbhar, Jitin Prasad, Rakesh Sachan, Arvind Kumar Sharma, Yogendra Upadhyay, Ashish Patel and Sanjay Nishad.
Ministers of state (independent charge) include Nitin Agarwal, Kapil Dev Agarwal, Ravindra Jaiswal, Sandeep Singh, Gulab Devi, Girish Chandra Yadav, Dharmveer Prajapati, Asim Arun, JPS Rathore, Dayashankar Singh, Narendra Kashyap, Dinesh Pratap Singh, Arun Kumar Saxena and Dayashankar Mishra ‘Dayalu’.
Ministers of state include Mayankeshwar Singh, Dinesh Khatik, Sanjeev Gaud, Baldev Singh Aulakh, Ajeet Pal, Jaswant Saini, Ramkesh Nishad, Manohar Lal Mannu Kori, Sanjay Gangwar, Brajesh Singh, KP Malik, Suresh Rahi, Somendra Tomar, Anup Pradhan ‘Valmiki ‘, Pratibha Shukla, Rakesh Rathor Guru, Rajni Tiwari, Satish Sharma, Danish Azad Ansari and Vijay Laxmi Gautam.
lone muslim minister
As part of striking the correct caste equations and involving people from different castes and communities, the Adityanath-led government also has a Muslim minister. Danish Azad Ansari took oath as Minister of State. Ansari said he was surprised when he got a call from the chief minister’s residence in the morning as the 33-year-old got a chance to join Adityanath’s team. The youth leader has been serving as the state general secretary of the BJP Minority Morcha (UP).
place for former bureaucrats
Two retired bureaucrats have got a place in Yogi’s cabinet. Former IAS officer Arvind Kumar Sharma took oath as a cabinet minister, while retired IPS officer Asim Arun was inducted as MoS (Independent Charge).
Sharma joined the BJP in January after taking voluntary retirement just before the UP Legislative Council elections and is a BJP MLC. Sharma was a 1988 batch Gujarat cadre IAS officer.
Arun is a resident of Kannauj and had taken VRS some time back from the post of police commissioner of Kanpur. After this he contested from Kannauj Sadar seat on BJP ticket. He defeated three-time Samajwadi Party MLA Anil Dohre in this constituency, considered a Yadav stronghold.
(with PTI inputs)
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