Yogi Adityanath was sworn in as the 41st chief minister of Uttar Pradesh along with two deputy chief ministers and 50 ministers at a grand function held at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana International Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on Friday.
Governor Anandiben Patel administered the oath of office and secrecy to Yogi Adityanath and his council of ministers in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Bharatiya Janata Party president JP Nadda, and Defence Minister and local MP Rajnath Singh.
Besides, a number of Union ministers and chief ministers of BJP-ruled states also attended the glittering swearing-in ceremony.
While the cabinet ministers took their oath separately, ministers of state (independent charge) took oath in groups of twos and the ministers of state in groups of fours.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath replicated the template of his 1.0 government which had two deputy chief ministers. While Yogi reposed faith in Keshav Prasad Maurya despite his losing the election, Dr Dinesh Sharma was replaced by another Brahmin leader Brajesh Pathak as deputy chief minister.
The Yogi cabinet 2.0 has two deputy chief ministers, 16 cabinet ministers, 14 ministers of state with independent charge and 20 ministers of state.
The new cabinet is a mix of youth and experience as the chief minister chose several newcomers and first time MLAs. Yogi retained only 22 ministers from his first government while 12 ministers could not win the assembly polls.
Among the prominent ministers dropped in the second edition of the Yogi government are Jal Shakti Minister Dr Mahendra Singh, Health Minister Jai Pratap Singh, MSME Minister Sidharth Nath Singh, Urban Development Minister Ashutosh Tandon, Excise Minister Ram Naresh Agnihotri, Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma, Industry Minister Satish Mahana, Energy Minister Shrikant Sharma, Minority Welfare Minister Moshin Raza, Tourism and Religious Affairs Minister Neelkanth Tiwari, Agricultural Export Minister Sri Ram Chauhan, Transport Minister Ashok Kataria, Social Welfare Minister Ramapati Shastri and Minister of State for Medical and Health, Atul Garg.
Among the newly inducted ministers, 20 are from Other Backward Classes, seven are Brahmins, eight from Scheduled Castes and six Thakurs, four Vaish, one Kayastha, one Sikh and two Bhumihars. A Muslim, Danish Azad Ansari, also found a place in the Yogi council of ministers replacing Mohsin Raza.
Of these, Dharamvir Prajapati, Arvind Kumar Sharma, Keshav Prasad Maurya, Swatantra Dev Singh, Dr Sanjay Nishad, Jitin Prasada and Ashish Patel are members of Legislative Council while four ministers -- Dayashankar Dayalu, Danish Azad Ansari, Yashwant Saini and Narendra Kashyap -- are not members of any House of the UP Legislature.
Sources claimed that outgoing Deputy Chief Minister Dr Dinesh Sharma could be made chairman of the Legislative Council while former Industry Minister Satish Mahana could be the new speaker of the UP Assembly.
The cabinet ministers are Suresh Kumar Khanna, Surya Pratap Shahi, Swatantra Dev Singh, Baby Rani Maurya, Lakshmi Narayan Chaudhari, Jaiveer Singh, Dharmpal Singh, Nand Gopal Gupta ‘Nandi’, Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary, Anil Rajbhar, Jitin Prasada, Rakesh Sachan, Arvind Kumar Sharma, Yogendra Upadhyay, Ashish Patel and Sanjay Nishad.
The ministers of state with independent charge are Nitin Agarwal, Kapil Dev Agarwal, Ravindra Jaiswal, Sandeep Singh, Gulab Devi, Girish Chand Yadav, Dharmveer Prajapati, Asim Arun, JPS Rathore, Dayashankar Singh, Narendra Kashyap, Dinesh Pratap Singh, Arun Kumar Saxena and Dayashankar Mishra 'Dayalu'.
The ministers of state include Mayankeshwar Sharan Singh, Dinesh Khatik, Sanjeev Gaud, Baldev Singh Alakh, Ajit Pal, Jaswant Saini, Ramkesh Nishad, Manohar Lal alias Mannu Kori, Sanjay Gangwar, Brijesh Singh, KP Malik, Suresh Rahi, Sumendra Tomar, Anup Pradhan Valmiki, Pratibha Shukla, Rakesh Rathore Guru, Rajni Tiwari, Satish Sharma, Danish Azad Ansari and Vijaylakshmi Gautam.
