Lucknow: BJP leader Yogi Adityanath, dressed in saffron robes, was sworn in as the 21st chief minister of Uttar Pradesh in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Sunday. He will now be known as Adityanath Yogi.
Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma were sworn in as deputy chief ministers along 44 other ministers. A total of 22 Cabinet ministers, nine ministers of state with independent charge and 13 ministers of state were administrated the oath of office and secrecy by governor Ram Naik.
Within hours of taking the oath, the new chief minister of UP asked all his ministers to give details about their movable and immovable assets to the CM’s secretariat as well as the party office within 15 days.
Adityanath Yogi has also directed all ministers to refrain from making statements that could hurt the sentiments of any section of the people. In a brief interaction with the media, he said the party manifesto, or “Sankalp Patra”, would be implemented in letter and spirit at the earliest. A training session would soon be held for first-time MLAs, and veteran legislator Suresh Khanna will be in charge of this. This is being done to acquaint first-time MLAs with the rules and working of the state Assembly.
Five of the leaders who were sworn in, including the chief minister, both deputy chief ministers, one minister of state with independent charge (Swatantra Dev Singh) and one minister of state (Mohsin Raza), are not members of either House of the state legislature.
A surprise omission was Pankaj Singh, son of Union home minister Rajnath Singh, though Sandeep Singh, grandson of Rajasthan governor Kalyan Singh, was made a minister of state.
The BJP has successfully tried to ensure a caste balance between upper castes and OBCs and also regional representation, apart from giving importance to senior leaders along with those who came in from other parties.
One Muslim leader who is not a member of either House, Mohsin Raza, was also included in the ministry. Mohsin Raza is a former cricketer who was UP BJP spokesman and one of the party’s most visible faces in TV debates during the recent election campaign. The BJP had earlier faced flak for not giving a single poll ticket to a Muslim. A Sikh MLA, Baldev Singh Olakh, was also among those sworn in.
Leaders like Swami Prasad Maurya, Dara Singh Chauhan, S.P. Singh Baghel and Brajesh Pathak, who came in from the BSP, and Rita Bahuguna Joshi and Nand Gopal Nandi, who left the Congress to join the BJP, were included in the state Cabinet. The swearing-in ceremony was marked by grandeur with almost the entire top BJP leadership present. Former CMs Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav were the only Opposition leaders there. Another former CM, N.D. Tiwari, was also present. Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Ananth Kumar, M. Venkaiah Naidu, Uma Bharti, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Kalraj Misra, Anupriya Patel, Mahesh Sharma and V.K. Singh were among the guests.
The chief ministers of BJP and NDA-ruled states who were present included Raman Singh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Manohar Parri-kar, Devendra Fadnavis, N. Chandrababu Naidu and Vasundhara Raje Scindia. BJP president Amit Shah and veteran leaders L.K. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi were also present. A surprise invitee was Lokendra Singh Kalvi, head of the Karni Sena, that recently hit the headlines for disrupting the shooti of Padmavati in Rajasthan.
The 22 Cabinet ministers who were sworn in include Surya Pratap Shahi, Suresh Khanna, Swami Prasad Maurya, Satish Mahana, Rajesh Agarwal, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, Dara Singh Chauhan, Sharampal Singh, S.P. Singh Baghel, Satyadeo Pachauri, Ramapati Shastri, J.P. Singh, Om Prakash Rajbhar (Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party), Brajesh Pathak, Chaudhary Laxmi Narain, Chetan Chauhan, Shrikant Sharma, Moti Singh, Siddharta Nath Singh and Mukut Bihari Varma,
The ministers of state with independent charge include Anupam Jaiswal, Suresh Rana, Upendra Tiwari, Mahendra Singh, Swatantra Dev Singh, Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary, Dharam Singh Saini, Anil Rajbhar and Swati Singh.
The ministers of state are Gulab Devi, Jai Prakash Nishad, Archana Pandey, Jai Kumar Singh Jacky, Atul Garg, Ranvendra Pratap Singh, Neelkanth Tiwari, Mohsin Raza, Girish Chandra Yadav, Mannu Kori, Sandeep Singh and Suresh Pasi.
