News Analysis India

Tag: Yogi Adityanath

  • Amid rift with Akhilesh, Shivpal meets Yogi triggering speculations

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: Amid the rift with Samajwadi Party chief and nephew Akhilesh Yadav, Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia (PSP-L) chief Shivpal Yadav reached out to UP CM Yogi Adityanath paying him a visit at his official residence triggering speculation of realignment of political forces here on Wednesday evening.

    Shivpal, who is an MLA from Jaswantnagar in Etawah on SP symbol, however, called it a courtesy call meant to greet Yogi on his victory and return to power in UP.

    Earlier, in the day, Shivpal had reached Assembly where he was administered the oath of house as an MLA by the newly-appointed Speaker Satish Mahana.

    Coming out after the 20-minute meeting with Yogi, when the media persons asked Shivpal Yadav about his plans to join the BJP, he did not refute the possibility it saying that he had already taken the oath of the house and did not want to say more than that for now.

    The chasm in the first family of Samjawadi Party widened on Tuesday when Shivpal Yadav boycotted the meeting of allies called by Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow.

    In fact, Shivpal has been sulking since he was not invited to SP legislative party meeting in which Akhilesh was elected SPLP leader on Saturday. He had openly expressed his discontent over not being invited to SPLP meeting. The sources close to Shivpal Yadav claimed that the PSP-L chief wanted a bigger role in SP after he contested the recently concluded Assembly elections on SP symbol from Jaswantnagar sacrificing his own party.

    After Shivpal’s outburst, the SP issued a clarification saying that none of the allies were called to the meeting and Shivpal too was an ally. Whereas Shivpal contended that he was an SP MLA who contested and won the Jaswantnagar seat on SP symbol.

    In fact, Shivpal has been nurturing the discontent since his party was not spared even a single seat to contest in the recently concluded elections. 

    Even during the elections, Shivpal had expressed his chagrin by saying that he agreed to contest on SP symbols only to keep Mulayam Singh Yadav’s words.

    The PSPL sources claimed that during his recent Etawah visit, Shivpal consulted his supporters about his future course of action after the “disrespect” shown to him by SP chief. 

    It is believed that he got the full support of his supporters who promised to stand by him unconditionally.

    It may be recalled that Akhilesh had reached out to Shivpal ahead of Assembly elections offering him to contest the polls on SP symbol from Jaswantnagar and promising him the respect and honour as per his stature.

  • Yogi Cabinet 2.0: UP ministers allocated personal staff through lottery

    By Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: To ensure corruption-free governance, the newly-appointed ministers of Yogi government 2.0 have not been given the option to choose the personal staff of their choice. Instead, a new lottery system has been introduced with the approval of the CM’s office.

    The system has been digitized and the ministers concerned are made to choose their staff from a list of employees randomly through a computer lottery supervised by the secretariat administration department. The system was followed by a number of ministers who assumed office on Tuesday.

    Significantly, CM Yogi Adityanath has kept the department of administrative reforms with himself.

    All members of the support staff who had worked with ministers in their previous five-year stint have been retained in the new list.

    Meanwhile, the participation of women in governance and general administrative work has been raised to 20%. They will be deputed as private secretaries (PS), assistant PS, review officers (RO), and assistant ROs of the newly-appointed ministers.

    ALSO READ | After free rations, Yogi govt prepares to set up community kitchens across Uttar Pradesh

    Sources said in the final list of personal staff approved by the CMO, the names of the personnel were kept confidential and were replaced by a code to keep the selection free from caste, creed, religion or regional considerations. Hence, while choosing the staff, the ministers will not be aware of whom they will select as their staff.

    The entire system of the personal staff selection was framed under the supervision of principal secretary, secretariat administration, Amrit Abhijat who claimed the CM had stressed on digitized allocation of staff to improve the functioning of the system.

    However, while the majority of ministers welcomed the new system developed for allocation of personal staff, some of them had reservations over working with women principal secretaries owing to late-night working hours or even travel regimens which the women staff may find difficult to follow.

  • After free rations, Yogi govt prepares to set up community kitchens across Uttar Pradesh

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: After giving an extension to the free ration scheme at its first cabinet meeting, Yogi government 2.0 is proceeding to set up community kitchens across the state in order to provide food that is free of cost or highly subsidised to the poor and deprived.

    The UP government has been distributing free rations to 15 crore beneficiaries every month since 2020. Under the scheme, the beneficiaries get packed 1 kg of whole chana, 1 litre of edible oil, 1 kg of salt besides 5 kg of wheat and rice per unit (family member) per month.

    The community kitchen scheme would be commenced in consonance with the recent order of the Supreme Court, delivered in January, whereby the Centre was asked to start a model scheme for community kitchens across the country providing additional food grain to states to address the issues related to malnutrition.

    As per official sources, the Yogi government has begun preparations to set up community kitchens in urban and rural areas to provide cooked nutritious food for free or at very nominal prices to the poor.

    Then modalities to start the scheme will be chalked out at a high-level meeting shortly this week involving all the departments concerned. Different departments may be given different roles in running such kitchens, said the sources.

    The sources claimed that besides the urban and rural local bodies which will be entrusted with setting up the kitchen in cities and villages respectively, food and civil supplies department will make the food grain for meals available andIntegrated Child Development Services department will ensure nutritional and caloric value of the food cooked in such community kitchens.

    Issues related to the pricing per meal and the criteria of beneficiaries to get access to community kitchen would also be decided in the meeting.

    In UP, the significance of such kitchens can be assessed by the fact that the state figures among over a dozen states which fall in the ‘severe’ category of malnourishment.

  • CM Adityanath, Akhilesh Yadav take oath as members of UP Assembly

    By PTI

    LUCKNOW: Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday took oath as member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly.

    After Adityanath, Akhilesh Yadav, who has been named as the Leader of the Opposition, took oath as MLA.

    While Adityanath won the recent state polls from the Gorakhpur Urban seat, Yadav was elected as an MLA from the Karhal assembly constituency.

    Pro-tem speaker Ramapati Shastri administered oath to members in the House.

  • Patel slammed for Yogi-Modi remark    

    By Express News Service

    AHMEDABAD:  “No one can break the Modi-Yogi jodi (pair), and no one has been able to become the chief minister in Uttar Pradesh for a second consecutive time. This is the first time a BJP chief minister has formed the government in UP for the second time,” said Uttar Pradesh Governer Anandiben Patel in Gujarat on Sunday She was speaking after presiding over the earth-breaking ceremony of the Kiran Medical college at Surat district.

    Meanwhile, the UP Governor’s statement was strongly opposed by the Gujarat Congress. According to party spokesperson Manish Doshi, “Both the Governor and the President of India are constitutional posts and the person holding the post should maintain the dignity of the post. A person sitting in this position, even if he/she belongs to a political party, should do away with political statements.”

    Incidentally, political analysts are also linking Anandiben’s statement with the forthcoming Assembly elections in Gujarat.  Dilip Patel, a political analyst, said, “One thing to remember is that Anandiben is a sharp politician who never states without a reason. After Bhupendra Patel’s regime came to power, the clout of Anandiben has increased and anyone here can feel it.”

    “So her Modi-Yogi account means that she believes that the C R Patil (state BJP chief)-Bhupendra Patel pair will mean similar connotations for the polls in Gujarat,” he said.  

  • Yadav flays Yogi govt over suicide bids by two Jhansi girls, cops deny sexual harassment as reason

    By PTI

    LUCKNOW: SP chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday attacked the Yogi Adityanath government over women’s safety in Uttar Pradesh, referring to an incident in Jhansi where two sisters, allegedly fed up with the police inaction over their complaint of sexual harassment, consumed poison.

    Police, however, refuted Yadav’s claim that the two sisters were sexually harassed, and said they had consumed poison, alleging police inaction over their complaint of harassment by their neighbours over a dispute on watering an under-construction house.

    “It’s saddening that losing hope from the police, two sisters, facing sexual harassment in Jhansi, consumed poison. All those criminals and officials involved and those patronising them should face an unbiased probe. Security of sisters and daughters should be the first indicator of law and order,” Akhilesh Yadav said in a tweet in Hindi.

    Responding to Yadav’s allegation, the Jhansi police claimed in a tweet that the two girls’ allegations of sexual harassment were false and they had a fight with a neighbouring woman and her son Rahul over the watering of an under-construction house.

    After the incident of the girls consuming poison came to light, police acted in the matter and have registered an FIR against the mother-son duo, the Jhansi police said on its Twitter handle. The police have also formed a team to arrest the accused, they said.

    The Jhansi police said it even suspended the police station in-charge J P Yadav with immediate effect for not taking proper action on the girls’ complaint and ordered a departmental probe against him. According to doctors, the condition of the girls is normal, police said.

  • Nobody can break Modi-Yogi pair: UP Governor Anandiben Patel

    By PTI

    SURAT: Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel on Sunday said nobody can break the Modi-Yogi pair, and added that the BJP retained power in UP with the support of a lot of people, including a large number north Indians settled in Gujarat’s Surat.

    She was referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Yogi Adityanath, who took oath as the Uttar Pradesh chief minister for a second term at a ceremony held on Friday, which was attended by the PM.

    In the UP Assembly polls held earlier this year, the BJP-led alliance has won 273 of 403 seats. While the BJP got 255 seats, its allies Nishad Party and the Apna Dal (S) bagged 18.

    This is the first time in over three decades that a party has won the assembly elections twice in a row in the crucial state.

    “We have formed the government in Uttar Pradesh, friends. Nobody can break the Modi-Yogi pair. Nobody can do this. A lot of people have given their support to achieve this. Several people from here (Surat) went there (UP) for campaigning,” she said.

    This is after 35 years that one party returned to power for a second term in a row, creating history, she added. “For this, you must congratulate us. A large number of north Indians are settled in Surat, and they have supported us to achieve this,” the former Gujarat chief minister said.

    Patel was in Surat to lay the foundation stone for Kiran Medical College, being set up by Samast Patidar Arogya Trust at Vadod in Olpad taluka of the district.

    Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel were also present on the occasion.

    Stating that India lags behind in the field of research, she suggested that the proposed college should have a dedicated department for this purpose.

    “India rose to the occasion to carry out research and came out with a vaccine against COVID-19,” the UP governor added. She also stressed the need for girls to get vaccinated against cervical cancer.

    “A new vaccine (against cervical cancer) has entered the market. As of now, it is very costly. I have been told that the price of this vaccine will come down in the range of Rs 100 to Rs 300 by August-September. Whenever this vaccine is available, I request you to get your daughters in the age group of 9 to 14 vaccinated against cervical cancer. I have started this vaccination work in UP irrespective of the price the vaccine,” she said.

    In his address, Mandaviya said the country is committed to provide quality education to students. From 55,000 seats for the MBBS course in 2014, the number has grown to 92,000 in seven years, which keeps increasing, he said.

    “In the past, people were concerned about getting permission for setting up a medical college. But we have provided relaxation in all the rules to set up a medical college. There is only one rule – education should be provided to the students at a reasonable cost without fleecing them,” he said.

    CM Bhupendra Patel said his government is committed to provide quality healthcare to people, for which Rs 12,240 crore have been allocated in the state budget for the year 2022-23.

    The state government is committed to set up one medical college in each district, he said, adding that the new services of air ambulance and green corridor have been added by the government for the treatment of patients in times of crisis.

  • Yogi Adityanath, jumbo cabinet of 52 sworn-in at glittering ceremony

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: After receiving a decisive mandate in recently concluded Assembly election, Yogi Adityanath, on Friday, took the oath of office and secrecy second time to become the first chief minister to return to power after completing a successful tenure of five years after a span of 37 years in UP.

    Yogi Adityanath led his jumbo 52-member cabinet to take oath of office at an extravagant swearing-in ceremony at Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium in Lucknow on Friday afternoon.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah, defence minister Rajnath Singh, and CMs of all BJP-ruled states including Nitish Kumar of Bihar, were among the galaxy of leaders present at the mega event. Adityanath and his cabinet were administered oath by Governor Anandiben Patel at the jam-packed stadium.

    Yogi was followed by the two deputy CMs, including Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brijesh Pathak, to take the oath. Maurya has been retained as the Deputy CM for a second term despite his defeat from his traditional Sirathu seat in recently concluded elections. Having been a prominent OBC face of the BJP, Maurya’s association with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP)-Bajrang Dal makes him important for the BJP. He had won the 2014 general elections from the Phulpur parliamentary constituency of Prayagraj district.

    ALSO READ : Adityanath takes oath as Uttar Pradesh CM; Maurya, Pathak to be deputy CMs

    However, Brajesh Pathak has been elevated to replace Dr Dinesh Sharma as the second Deputy CM.  Brajesh Pathak, was a cabinet minister for Law in the previous Yogi Adityanath government. A prominent Brahmin face of the party, he has won from the Lucknow Cantonment seat in 2022 polls. In 2017, Pathak jumped the ship from Bahujan Samaj Party to join BJP. He represented Unnao in Lok Sabah during 2004-2009.

    The Yogi cabinet 2.0, comprises of 18 cabinet rank ministers, 14 ministers of state with independent charge and 20 state ministers. Meanwhile, 32 new faces have been given place in the new cabinet. Of 32, nine new faces have got cabinet rank, seven Minister of State with Independent charge and 16 Ministers of State.

    Two BJP allies including Apna Dal (S) and NISHAD party have also secured a berth each as cabinet minister.

    However, over two dozen (26) ministers, including some prominent faces, of the previous cabinet have failed to make it this time. Prominent among those who have been dropped include the likes of Dr Dinesh Sharma, Siddharthnath Singh, Shrikant Sharma, Ashutosh Tandon, Dr Mahendra Singh, Satish Mahana,  Neekanth Tiwari and Mohsin Raza to name a few.

    A cursory look at the new cabinet, it becomes clear that this time the BJP think tank has decided to give a chance to young and new faces as of the 60 ministers of previous cabinet, only 20 could make to this one.

    Former Uttarakhand governor Baby Rani Maurya is among the new inductees in the Yogi cabinet. The BJP leader is a prominent Schedueld Caste face belonging to the Jatav community. She has also served as the first woman mayor of Agra besides being the member of National Commission for Women.

    Moreover, UP BJP chief Swantantra Dev Singh has also been inducted as a cabinet minister. In previous Yogi cabinet, Singh was a Minister of State with Independent charge but was asked to take over as party’s state chief in 2019.

    Some of the bureaucrats-turned-politicians have also made it to the cabinet. One name that stands out among cabinet ministers is that of Arvind Kumar Sharma, former IAS officer of Gujarat Cadre. Supposedly close to PM Narendra Modi, Sharma had taken VRS and joined the BJP in January 2021. Currently, he is an MLC and had been active in BJP organisation as stat vice-president.

    Similarly, former top cop and Kanpur commissioner  Asim Arun, who hung his boots taking VRS just two months before the polls joining the saffron brigade, has been inducted as MoS with Independent charge.  Asim Arun has won a very difficult seat of Kannauj Sadar (SC) for the BJP.

    In the new cabinet of 52, 38 are newly-elected MLAs, 10 are MLCs and four are non-members, who would have to take up a seat either in assembly or council within six months.

    The BJP decision makers have chosen the ministers keeping the caste calculus in mind. While the ministers coming from upper castes have made the biggest cut with 21, OBCs are not much behind getting a near equal representation with 20 berths. However, eight ministers come from the scheduled castes along with one each from Scheduled Tribe, Muslim and Sikh.

    The only Muslim minister in previous Yogi cabinet has been replaced by another Muslim face—Danish Azad Ansari—from Ballia. He is general secretary of BJP  minority cell. However, the hand of the decision makers seems a little tight over the representation of women in cabinet which stands out to be just 9 per cent. With only five ministers—one each in the rank of Cabinet and MoS Independent charge, three have been inducted as MoS.

  • Confident UP govt will write another new chapter of progress: PM Modi

    Congratulating Adityanath and his ministerial colleagues on taking oath, Modi said the state's development journey marked several important milestones in his government's first five years.

  • Ahead of swearing-in, Yogi invites cabinet probables for tea

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: Ahead of the extravagant  swearing-in ceremony scheduled for Friday in Lucknow in the presence of over 50,000 people, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister –designate Yogi Adityanath has extended invite to around 45-50 probable ministers for tea and breakfast at his official residence on Friday morning.

    Prominent among those called for the tea include Keshav Prasad Maurya, Dinesh Sharma, Siddharth Nath Singh, Nand Gopal Nandi, Brajesh Pathak, Jai Pratap Singh, Satish Mahana, Jitin Prasada, Suresh Khanna and Shrikant Sharma.

    However, as the suspense prevails over the shape and size of the Yogi cabinet 2.0, total 61 or more ministers are expected to take oath along with Yogi on Friday. As per the sources, while 15-17 ministers of the previous cabinet would be repeated, 25-30 new faces will be inducted in the new cabinet.

    Apart from this, some leaders who lost the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly election may also get a chance. Yogi 2.0 may accommodate members from the Jat community as well. Along with this, preference will also be given to Kashi, Braj and Awadh region.

    However, the sources claimed that the new cabinet of Yogi Adityanath will be a blend of caste calculus, poll performance , old and new faces and the regional obligations with the sight set to accomplish Mission 2024 when PM Modi will seek another term.

    Sources suggest that the discussion on chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s new team took place in Delhi late on Wednesday night. Union home minister Amit Shah, BJP national president JP Nadda, organization general secretary BL Santosh along with CM Yogi were also present in the key meeting. It is being said that the list of ministers has been discussed with the central leadership and the chiefminister.

    Yogi’s new team is likely to comprise of more than half new faces. Party sources claim that there could be 43 names on the list of new ministers in Yogi government 2.0 in consonance of the instructions of PM Modi that educated and grassroot connected leaders of different classes and regions should be givenpriority besides maintaining the regional balance keeping the caste calculus in mind.

    The allies will also be a part of the cabinet as per their strength. Apna Dal (S) and NISHAD party may get two and one ministerial berths  respectively in the new government.  The BJP ally Apna Dal (S) has won 12 assembly seats, while NISHAD party has won six assembly seats. The BJP had bagged 255 seats taking the total tally to 273 seats in the UP assembly.