News Analysis India

Tag: UP cabinet expansion

  • CM Yogi Adityanath expands Uttar Pradesh Cabinet ahead of 2022 polls

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: Just five months ahead of crucial electoral battle in Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday evening expanded his cabinet for the second time in his 4.5 years of tenure.

    The new cabinet saw seven new ministers taking oath, including one cabinet and six ministers of state. With this expansion, Yogi’s ‘pack of 60’ is now complete.

    The inductees, keeping the poll math in mind, namely are — Jitin Prasada, Chhatrapal Singh Gangwar, Paltu Ram, Sangeeta Balwant Bind, Sanjeev Kumar Gond, Dinesh Khatik, and Dharmaveer Singh Prajapati.

    AK Sharma, PM Narendra Modi’s trusted bureaucrat who had taken voluntary retirement as MSME secretary in Delhi and joined the BJP in Lucknow in Janaury this year, failed to make it to the Yogi cabinet. However, speculations about the possible induction of the ex-IAS officer who has been made MLC in UP, were rife. Sharma was entrusted with organisational responsibility when appointed vice-president of UP BJP in June, this year.

    However, the Sunday expansion is been seen as an exercise by the ruling party to balance various caste equations in the cabinet. Significantly, the Yogi government did not touch any of the sitting ministers to make space for the new ones.

    However, through expansion of Yogi cabinet, the ruling BJP has tried to continue its OBC and scheduled caste (SC) outreach agenda by inducting three OBCs and two SC among seven ministers sworn in on Sunday evening at Raj Bhawan.

    Congress senior and prominent leader Jitin Prasada, a Brahmin, who had joined the BJP in June, this year, was the only one to be sworn-in as the cabinet minister in Yogi government. Rest six took the oath of the office of minister of state.

    As per the poltical pundits, Jitin Prasada got the cabinet rank to placate the allegedly sulking Brahmins in the state.

    The pack of seven newly inducted ministers shows that the BJP has worked out the expansion minutely as it has given space even to its only Scheduled Tribe (ST) MLA Sandeep Kumar Gond from Sonebhadra.

    However, most of the new inductees belong to the castes that had no or very less represention in the state government.

    Moreover, two SC MLAs – Paltu Ram, MLA from Balrampur and Dinesh Khatik, MLA from Hastinapur – have been inducted into Yogi cabinet. While Palturam belongs to Jatav community , Khatik is a Sonker by caste.

    On the other, the party has continued with its OBC outreach strategy by inducting three ministers — Dharmveer Prajapati, Chhatrapal Gangawar and SangeetaBalwant Bind.

    Chhatrapal Gangwar, a Kurmi by caste, was sworn in as Minister of State. He is MLA from Baheri constituency in Bareilly parliamentary segment. Gangwar’s elevation is being seen as a replacement to Santosh Gangwar, an 8-time MP from Bareilly, who was dropped from Modi cabinet recently.

    Similarly, Ghazipur MLA  Sangeeta Balwant Bind’s elevation as minister of state in Yogi Cabinet is also being seen as BJP’s bid to create its own Nishad leadership even after having forged an alliance with NISHAD party, led by Dr Sanjay Nishad.

    So far Yogi cabinet has 23 cabinet ministers, nine Ministers with Independent charge and 21 ministers of state taking the number to 53. The first expansion of the UP cabinet was done in August 2019.

  • Expansion of Yogi cabinet by month-end, Jitin Prasada likely to get ministerial berth

    By Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: The late Thursday evening rush of UP CM Yogi Adityanath to Delhi and his meeting Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president JP Nadda has made the corridors of power in Lucknow abuzz with speculations of an impending cabinet expansion soon after Rakshabandhan.

    As per the highly placed sources, with the expansion of the Yogi cabinet, the nomination of four members of the Legislative Council will also take place. However, the name of the members to be nominated to the Council were reportedly finalised at the meeting of CM Yogi with Shah and Nadda in presence of UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh and organisational general secretary Sunil Bansal.

    At present, the Yogi cabinet has 53 members of which 23 hold cabinet ranks, nine ministers of state with independent charge and 21 are ministers of state. As per the provision, a total of 60 ministers could be accommodated in the cabinet. So, the cabinet has seven places to be filled now.

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    The sources claimed that the names of former bureaucrat and UP BJP vice–president Arvind Kumar Sharma, Jitin Prasada, the former Congress leader who recently joined BJP, and Dr Sanjay Nishad, the chief of Nishad Party, were discussed as the possible inductees in the expansion of Yogi cabinet.

    CM Yogi returned to Lucknow on Friday morning.

    The sources claimed that consensus was evolved in the meeting in Delhi to include some faces to strike the caste balance in the cabinet ahead of the upcoming 2022 Assembly polls. Prominent among those whose names were considered for Council included Dr Sanjay Nishad, Jitin Prasad, and former UP BJP chief Lakshmi Kant Bajpai.

    The sources claimed that Sanjay Nishad could find a place in the cabinet as he comes from a most backward caste. He had recently met Nadda and Shah in Delhi to discuss the OBC factor in the state in the wake of a new OBC bill passed in the Parliament equipping the states to draw their own OBC list. 

    Moreover, the names of Jitin Prasada were doing rounds to placate the Brahmins who have been supposedly sulking for quite some time.

  • Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath mulls expansion of state cabinet berths

    By Express News Service
    LUCKNOW: After the rejig of the union council of ministers on July 7, there is now a strong buzz about a similar exercise being on the cards in Uttar Pradesh. Though the speculations about expansion of the state’s council of ministers led by Yogi Adityanath have been rife since last couple of months, the buzz now is much strong than last month.

    If sources in the ruling BJP are to be believed, then the expansion/revamp of Team Yogi could take place either by July-end or maximum by August first week.

    Just like the recent cabinet expansion at the centre, where six SC and non Yadav OBC MPs and a Brahmin MP from the state were inducted, the rejig in the state’s council of ministers might also the same caste factor to be dominant.

    As the BJP swept the 2017 assembly polls on the back of a solid non-Yadav OBC, non-Jatav SC and upper caste consolidation, legislators from the same segments are likely to be inducted in the expanded council of ministers in Lucknow too.

    The BJP allies, particularly Apna Dal (S) and the NISHAD Party, both representing non-Yadav OBC segment too are likely to get their slice of the pie in the expanded state council of ministers. Presently, the state has 54 ministers, including the CM, which means there is a scope for inducting at least six new ministers to reach the maximum limit of 60 ministers.

    Added to it is a strong possibility of some non performing ministers (particularly those in whose areas, the party had performed dismally in the April-May village panchayat polls) being dropped. If two to four such ministers are dropped, then there will be vacancy for eight to ten ministerial berths.

    As per informed sources, a list of eight to ten probables has been sent by state BJP to the national leadership for approval. The list was finalized particularly after the recent co-ordination meeting between senior RSS functionaries and state BJP leaders in Lucknow.

    If the possible Team Yogi expansion actually happens, it would be only the second such rejig in the over four years of Yogi regime. Also, it would also be the last cabinet expansion of the present government, as next assembly polls are just seven to eight months away.

    Jitin Prasad likely to be nominated MLC soon 

    Former union minister and two times for Congress Lok Sabha member Jitin Prasada who joined BJP on June 9, is likely to be soon nominated as MLC. Out of the four vacancies for nominated MLCs in the state, one is set to go Prasada’s way.

    According to sources, two of the four nominations could be of upper caste individuals (one of them being Brahmin politician Jitin Prasada) while remaining two might include one each from OBC and SC segment.