News Analysis India

Tag: Swatantra Dev Singh

  • New faces likely in Yogi Cabinet 2.0; caste balance, performance to decide new team

    By ANI

    LUCKNOW: Days after the BJP retained power for the second consecutive term in Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is scheduled to visit Delhi on Sunday to discuss the new cabinet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

    National President JP Nadda, Amit Shah and BL Santosh in Delhi will be present at the meeting. The swearing-in ceremony date will also be discussed during the meeting.

    As per sources, the BJP is also considering several new faces in the Cabinet along with the new Deputy Chief Minister.

    State President Swatantrata Dev Singh, BJP leader Sunil Bansal, state in-charge Radha Mohan Singh will also accompany Adityanath to Delhi on Sunday.

    It is being speculated that the BJP leadership has prepared a basic list of probable Deputy Chief Ministers and Ministers on the basis of qualification, caste and regional equations because BJP gives place to every caste in its cabinet. The Central leadership will have the final say on the list.

    For the post of Deputy Chief Minister, the names of Swatantra Dev Singh, Baby Rani Maurya, Brijesh Pathak and Keshav Prasad Maurya are in talks. Swatantra Dev Singh was the Transport Minister, apart from this he was the BJP state president.

    Keshav Prasad Maurya has definitely lost from Sirathu seat in the elections this time but he is the face of OBC. As Deputy Chief Minister, he has governed the state well, so once again he can be made the Deputy Chief Minister.

    Baby Rani Maurya has been the Governor of Uttarakhand and is a well-known face of Jatav society in Uttar Pradesh. Brijesh Pathak, of the Brahmin community, has been a law minister in the Uttar Pradesh government. UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh, who is also a Kurmi leader, was one of the prominent faces behind BJP’s big win in Uttar Pradesh.

    Law Minister Brijesh Pathak, who won from Lucknow Cantonment seat, may get the role of Deputy Chief Minister in the Yogi government to maintain the Brahmin equation.In Yogi Sarkar 2, the leadership is also considering the inclusion of two former police officers in the new cabinet- Rajeshwar Singh and Asim Arun.

    The newly-elected MLA from Sarojini Nagar seat of Lucknow, Dr Rajeshwar Singh was an officer of Uttar Pradesh Police. BJP MLA Aseem Arun has won from Kannauj (Sadar) seat. Asim Arun was an officer of the rank of ADG. Before being the first police commissioner of Kanpur, Asim Arun’s father late Ram Arun was twice the DGP of Uttar Pradesh.

    Many Bharatiya Janata Party leaders have won by a huge margin of votes. In this, the candidate from the Noida Assembly seat and Union Defense Minister Rajnath Singh’s son Pankaj Singh has won by a margin of 1,81,513 votes.

    The BJP senior leaders are also discussing Pankaj Singh getting a place in the Yogi cabinet. Till now, no one from Noida had got a place in the Yogi cabinet, so it is expected that this time Pankaj Singh, who has performed brilliantly in 2017 and now in 2022 too, can be made a minister in the Yogi government.

    Shalabh Mani Tripathi, a Brahmin young face close to Yogi and an experienced journalist, can be made a minister in the Yogi cabinet. Shalabh has also been in ABVP earlier.Allies Apna Dal and Nishad Party would also get a place in the Cabinet-MLC Ashish Patel and Sanjay Nishad can get important roles to play.

    Besides the new faces, old leaders like Suresh Khanna, who won with a landslide victory from the Shahjahanpur seat for the ninth consecutive time, can also be made a minister.Brijesh Pathak and Keshav Prasad Maurya can also be part of the cabinet again.

    The swearing-in of the Yogi government is likely to be held on March 15 or 21.

    Adityanath on Friday tendered his resignation to Governor Anandiben Patel at the Raj Bhavan in Lucknow.

    Following the massive victory in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, Adityanath on Friday held a meeting with his ministerial colleagues at the party office in Lucknow. Adityanath, a monk-turned-politician, won his first-ever Assembly election by a margin of 1,03,390 from Gorakhpur Urban constituency, defeating the Samajwadi Party candidate Subhawati Upendra Dutt Shukla, who secured 62,109 votes in the recently-concluded UP Assembly elections. Adityanath will be the first Chief Minister in the last 37 years to return to power after completing a full term in the state.

  • We are not in politics to loot or crush someone under a Fortuner: UP BJP chief to party workers

    By PTI

    LUCKNOW: With the BJP facing flak over Lakhimpur Kheri violence, its UP chief Swatantra Dev Singh on Sunday urged party workers to win people’s confidence with their conduct, saying “we are not in politics to loot” or “crush someone under a Fortuner”.

    His remarks came after Union minister Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra was arrested on Saturday in connection with mowing down of four farmers by an SUV in Lakhimpur Kheri on October 3.

    Addressing a meeting of UP BJP’s minority morcha, Singh said, “We have not come in politics to loot (people), nor have we come to crush someone under a Fortuner (SUV).

    “You will get votes by your behaviour. If 10 people of your locality are praising you, my heart swells (with pride). Your behaviour should be such that people do not turn away their faces after seeing you,” he asserted.

    The BJP leader’s comments came hours after Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra accused the government of trying to “save” a Union minister’s son in the case and said except BJP leaders and their “billionaire friends” nobody was safe in the country.

    Four farmers were mowed down by the SUV when a group agitating against the Centre’s three new farm laws was demonstrating against the visit of UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.

    Two BJP workers and a driver were allegedly beaten to death by the angry protesters, while a local journalist was also killed in the violence.

    The incident has triggered a political storm and put the BJP government on the back foot in the poll-bound state.

    The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), which is spearheading the agitation against the Centre’s three farm laws, had alleged that the violence was held under a pre-planned conspiracy and demanded the arrest of the minister and his son.

    The farmer unions said if the government does not accept their demands by October 11, they will take out a ‘Shaheed Kisan Yatra’ from Lakhimpur Kheri with the ashes of slain farmers.

    A nine-member team headed by Deputy Inspector General of Police (Headquarters) Upendra Agarwal has been formed to investigate the FIR lodged against the minister’s son and others in the violence case.

  • SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar meets UP BJP chief in Lucknow, terms it as only ‘courtesy call’

    By PTI
    LUCKNOW: Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief Om Prakash Rajbhar, who has recently formed the Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha, on Tuesday met BJP state president Swatantra Dev Singh here with the former terming it as a “courtesy meeting”.

    “Swatantra Dev is a leader of backward classes and also BJP state president. It was a courtesy meeting with him. We have personal relations. I had some work due to which I went there. There is no political meaning in this meeting,” Rajbhar told reporters.

    Ruling out possibility of an alliance with BJP again, Rajbhar said, “I can say with guarantee that there would be no agreement of our party with the BJP. I will root out BJP from the state.”

    BJP state vice-president Dayashankar Singh, who was present in the meeting, said the talks between the leaders (Rajbhar and Swatantra Dev) were “positive” and claimed that both parties will contest Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections together in 2022.

    The AIMIM had recently announced that it would contest 100 seats in the polls next year in alliance with Om Prakash Rajbhar-led SBSP and its Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha, a front of smaller parties.

    SBSP had contested the 2017 Assembly polls in alliance with the BJP but parted ways before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

  • UP Legislative Council polls: BJP candidates to file papers on Monday

    By PTI
    LUCKNOW: All BJP candidates for the biennial polls to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council will file their nomination papers on Monday in the presence of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the party said in a statement on Sunday.

    The party candidates include state BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh and Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma.

    Monday is the last day for the filing of nominations for 12 legislative council seats, which will fall vacant on January 30.

    The scrutiny of papers will be held on January 19 and names can be withdrawn till January 21.

    The polling is scheduled to take place on January 28 and the counting will be done an hour after the completion of the polls.

    On Friday, former IAS officer AK Sharma was named a BJP candidate, a day after he joined the party, fuelling speculations that he may get a ministerial post soon.

    Sharma in a tweet thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, national BJP president J P Nadda and UP CM Yogi Adityanath for it.

    Sharma, who has long been one of the trusted bureaucrats of Prime Minister Narendra Modi since his tenure as the Gujarat chief minister, joined the BJP on Thursday, days after he opted for voluntary retirement from service.

    Besides Sharma, the BJP named Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma, its state unit president Swatantra Dev Singh and Lakshman Prasad Acharya as candidates for the polls.

    The other BJP candidates are Kunwar Manvendra Singh, Govind Narayan Shukla, Salil Bishnoi, Ashwani Tyagi, Dharamveer Prajapati and Surendra Chaudhary.

    The BJP has already asserted that it will win 10 out of 12 seats.

    In the 403-member UP Legislative Assembly, the BJP has 310 MLAs, SP 49, BSP 18, Apna Dal (Sonelal) has 9, Congress 7 and the SBSP 4.

    There are three Independent MLAs while the RLD and the Nishad Party have one MLA each.

    UP BJP general secretary JPS Rathore said his party can easily win 10 of the 12 seats.

    Of the 12 MLCs whose tenure is expiring, six are from the Samajwadi Party (SP)–Ramesh Yadav, Ahmed Hasan, Ashu Malik, Sahab Singh Saini, Ramjatan Rajbhar and Virendra Singh.

    Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma, Swatantra Dev Singh and Laxman Acharya are from the BJP.

    The tenure of BSP’s Pradeep Jatav and Dharamveer Ashok is also coming to an end.

    The term of Naseemudin Siddiqui, who left the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and joined the Congress, is also coming to an end.

    The poll panel had earlier issued guidelines to be followed during the entire election process.

    These guidelines state that every person shall wear a face mask during all election-related activities.

    At the entry of hall/room/premises used for election purposes, thermal scanning of all persons shall be carried out and sanitiser made available at all locations.

    Social distancing shall be maintained as per the COVID-19 guidelines of the state government and the Ministry of Home Affairs.

    The chief secretary of Uttar Pradesh has been directed to depute a senior officer from the state to ensure that the instructions regarding COVID-19 containment measures are complied with while making arrangements for conducting the elections, the Election Commission added.