Thrust on maintaining regional and caste balance was visible in the formation of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath-led 47-member Council of Ministers that includes two Deputy Chief Ministers.
As many as 17 Ministers come from eastern UP, which the BJP nearly swept this time. A dozen other Ministers belong to western part of the State and 11 hail from the central region. However, Bundelkhand region, which was swept by the BJP winning 19 seats, did not get a fair deal as one MlA has been inducted in the Council of Ministers while lucknow bagged three Cabinet Minister and one Minister of State.
Though the Council of Ministers is dominated by upper castes, Adityanath tried to strike a caste balance in his Government. There are three Dalits and 26 upper castes in the his Government. The rest belongs to OBCs, like Kurmi and Rajbhar. Besides, minorities get two berths with one to a Muslim and another to a Sikh. Among the three Dalits who also got a berth in the Ministry, one got the Cabinet rank and two MoS. Four women also made their place in the Ministry.
Interestingly, while the BJP did not field a single Muslim in the poll, they nominated one member from the community as Minister of State.
Mohsin Raza, BJP leader and former cricketer is the lone Muslim face in the Council of Ministers. Raza, who had joined the BJP some years back is not the member of the either of the House of UP legislature. Mohsin Raza, who had represented the State in cricket, took the oath on the name of ‘Ishwar’ and not ‘Allah’. Along with Moshin, there is another former cricketer Chetan Chauhan has been inducted as Cabinet Minister. He is the former BJP MP from Bareilly.
The balancing act of the party can also be seen in its choice of two Deputy CMs - one of them is a backward caste leader, while the other is a Brahmin. The CM himself is a Rajput.
The 22 Cabinet Ministers are Surya Pratap Shahi, Suresh Khanna, Swami Prasad Maurya, Satish Mahana, Rajesh Agarwal, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, Dara Singh Chauhan, Dharam Pal Singh, SP Singh Baghel, Satyadev Pachauri, Ramapati Shastri, Jai Pratap Singh, Brajesh Pathak, laxmi Narain Choudhury, Chetan Chauhan, Srikant Sharma, Rajendra Singh alias Moti Singh, Siddhant Nath Singh Mukut Bihari Verma, Ashutosh Tandon and Nand Gopal Gupta Nandi, all from the BJP. Om Prakash Rajbhar is from the BJP ally Suheldeo Bhartiya Samaj party.
The nine Ministers of State (Independent charge) are Anupuma Jaiswal, Suresh Rana, Upendra Tiwari , Bhupendra Singh Choudhury, Dharam Singh Saini,, Anil Rajbhar and Swati Singh, all from the BJP. Dr Mahendra Kumar Singh and Jat leader from Moradabad Bhupendra Singh Choudhury are the two MlCs among the Minister of State with Independent charge while Swantra Deo Singh is neither the MlA nor MlC.
The 13 Minister of State are Gulab Devi, Jai Prakash Nishad, Archana Pandey, Atul Garg, Ranvendra Pratap Singh, alias Dhunni Bhaiyya, Neelkanth Tiwari, Mohsin Raza, Girish Chandra Yadav, Baldev Singh Olakh, Mannu Kori, Sandeep Singh, Suresh Pasi and Jai Kumar Singh Jacky. Jacky is the lone MoS from the BJP ally Apna Dal (Sonelal).
Yogi Adityanath Ministry has a fair share of the turncoats who have found berth in his Cabinet. former Opposition leader and leader BSP leader Swami Prasad Maurya and former state Congress president Rita Bahuguna Joshi were sworn in as Cabinet Ministers.
Former Rajya Sabha member of the BSP Brijesh Pathak, former BSP MP Dara Singh Chauhanand former SP MP SP Singh were also inducted as a Cabinet Minister. Former Minister in the Mayawati Government Nand Gopal Gupta and lakshmi Narayan Chowdhary, a known party hopper got also ministerial berths.
Former Minister in BSP government Dharam Singh Saini has become a minister of state with independent charge.
The BJP returns back to power in UP exactly after 15 years and eleven days. Incidentally the last BJP CM was Rajnath Singh, from Rajput community, who resigned on March 8, 2002 after losing the Assembly polls. He has been succeeded by Yogi Adityanath also from the same community.