Even though Uttar Pradesh lost one seat in the Union Council of Ministers in the third expansion of the Narendra Modi Government, but the two new Ministers, both in the rank of Minister of State, have been selected to balance the caste politics of UP keeping an eye on the 2019 lok Sabha elections.
Three Union Ministers — Cabinet Minister Kalraj Mishra, and two Ministers of State Sanjeev Baliyan and Mahendra Nath Pandey — had resigned recently but only two Ministers was inducted into their place. The new Ministers from Uttar Pradesh are Shiv Pratap Shukla, a Rajya Sabha member and bete noire of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and former Mumbai Police Commissioner and MP from Baghpat in western UP Dr Satyapal Singh.
Through this reshuffle, BJP tried to balance the caste factor both in eastern and western UP. In western UP, the party replaced one Jat Sanjeev Baliyan and with another Jat leader Satyapal Singh, but in eastern UP, against two Brahmins Kalraj Mishra and Mahendra Nath Pandey only one Shiv Pratap Shukla was made Minister. However, Pandey gets a Brahmin president in form of Mahendra Nath Pandey.
Shiv Pratap Shukla, a four-time MlA and former UP Minister, had seen many ups and down in last many years primarily because he opposed Yogi. He was even refused party ticket in 2007 elections. But he was given prominence in organisation and this was made RS member in 2016.
Sources said that the elevation of Shukla as Union Minister will balance the Yogi Government in eastern UP because of dominance of Thakurs in that region. Politically speaking Yogi, a Thakur by caste, has given importance to officers and leaders of his caste in Government positions and this had sent wrong message among Brahmins who account for almost 10 per cent of the voters in UP.
Similarly, the appointment of Satyapal Singh as a Minister in place of Sanjiv Baliyan also gives a signal that the BJP leadership wants to change a non-performing Jat leader with an active Jat who was once police commissioner in Mumbai and had defeated the high profile leader Ajit Singh in the 2014 lok Sabha polls.