UP CM Yogi Inducts 18 Ministers, Suresh Rana Promoted
LUCKNOW : Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday expanded his council of ministers with 23 ministers, who took oath at the Raj Bhavan. Four ministers of state with independent charge were promoted as cabinet ministers, while two new faces, Ram Naresh Agnihotri and Kamla Rani Varun, joined as cabinet ministers.The allocation of portfolios will happen at a later date.
The names of Apna Dal(Sone Lal) chief Anupriya Patel’s husband, Ashish Patel, and Rajnath Singh’s son, Noida MLA Panjak Singh, were, however, missing from the list of newly-sworn ministers.
The ministers who took oath as Cabinet ministers in the presence of UP Governor Anandiben Patel and the Chief Minister also included Among those sworn in was Suresh Rana, 49, a two time MLA from the Thana Bhawan seat in western UP, who has been given a cabinet minister post. Suresh Rana, whose name figures in criminal cases relating to the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, in which more than 60 people died, faces charges related to promoting enmity on religious grounds.
Government sources say Suresh Rana was rewarded for work done as minister of state in-charge of sugarcane, during which time he was pro-active in trying to clear thousands of crores of farmers’ dues.
Mahendra Singh, Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary and Anil Rajbhar. Anil Rajbhar, in particular, is being held up as the leader of the Rajbhar community following the sacking of Om Prakash Rajbhar, who has remained critical of Adityanath’s administration.
Neelkant Tiwari, Kapildev Agarwal, Satish Dwivedi, Ashok Kataria, Shri Ram Chauhan, and Ravindra Jaiswal were given the portfolio of MoS (independent charge).
Meanwhile, Anil Sharma, Mahesh Gupta, Anand Swarup Shukla, Vijay Kashyap, Giriraj Singh Dharmesh, Lakhan Singh Rajpoot, Neelima Katiyar, Chaudhary Udaybhan Singh, Chandrika Prasad Upadhyay, Ramashankar Singh Patel and Ajeet Singh Pal took oath as MoS.
Ahead of the swearing-in, Rajesh Agarwal, Anupama Jaiswal, Dharam Pal Singh and Archana Pandey tendered their resignations on Tuesday evening. The UP government currently consists of 43 ministers, including CM Adityanath, two deputy chief ministers — Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma — nine ministers of state with independent charge, and 13 ministers of state.
Another interesting choice is Sri Ram Chauhan, 65, a former Lok Sabha MP and minister in the government of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The MLA from the Dhanghata Assembly segment, Sri Ram Chauhan has been handed a minister of state (independent) charge.
Equally interesting is the fact that of the 23 ministers sworn in, only two are women. Six of the 23 are Brahmins, with two each from the Thakur and Vaishya communities and 10 from OBCs. The BJP swept to power in the state with a commanding mandate in 2017 polls, winning 325 of 403 seats.(With Inputs from Lucknow Bureau).
