Yogi Adityanath rewards performers, inducts 18 new ministers with an eye on 2022 polls

NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has expanded his Council of Ministers, inducting 18 new Ministers and promoting five existing Ministers who took oath on Wednesday. This was the first Cabinet reshuffle by the UP government aimed at a careful caste and regional balance ahead of the 2022 elections.

It will now be a 56-member Council of Ministers now in UP against a 47-member Council of Ministers earlier.

Four Ministers of State with Independent Charge, Anil Rajbhar, Mahendra Singh, Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary, and Suresh Rana were promoted as full Cabinet Ministers while Minister of State Neelkanth Tiwari was promoted as Minister of State with Independent Charge. This was widely seen as them being rewarded for good performance. Suresh Rana as the sugarcane minister has been at the forefront of record clearance of cane dues in the state while Mahendra Singh was seen to have effectively implemented rural schemes as the rural development minister. Anil Rajbhar’s elevation is seen as a replacement from the Purvanchal region for BJP’s former ally Om Prakash Rajbhar who was dropped from the Cabinet before the Lok Sabha elections. A surprise inclusion straight as a Cabinet Minister was former two-time BJP MP Kamal Rani who is seen as the woman face among the Cabinet ministers to replace Rita Bahaguna Joshi who has become an MP now. Ram Naresh Agnihotri, the MLA from Bhogaon in Mainpuri which had been a Samajwadi party stronghold for long, has also been made a Cabinet Minister in the Yogi government for the first time.

Apart from six Cabinet Ministers, six Ministers with Independent Charge and 11 Ministers of State were also sworn in on Wednesday. The Yogi government has brought in representation from the Agra and Muzzafarnagar districts into the Council of Ministers as these districts did not have representation so far despite BJP winning from these areas of West UP in a big way in 2017 as well as 2019. Agra Cant MLA GS Dharmesh, Fatehpur Sikri MLA Chaudhary Udaybhan Singh and MLA from Charthawal seat in Muzzafarnagar, Vijay Kashyap were inducted as Ministers of State and Muzzafarnagar MLA Kapil Dev Agarwal was inducted as a Minister of State with Independent Charge. The changes were brought in after three Ministers were elected as MPs in the recent Lok Sabha elections – Satyadev Pachauri, Rita Bahaguna Joshi and SPS Baghel, while Minister with Independent Charge, Swarantradev Singh became UP BJP chief.

Four Ministers had also resigned on Tuesday ahead of the Cabinet reshuffle. Finance Minister Rajesh Agarwal resigned on account of reaching 75 years of age while Irrigation Minister Dharampal Singh was asked to resign apparently on account of poor performance. Kapildev Agarwal has been inducted as a Minister of State with independent charge as an apparent replacement for Rajesh Agarwal. Basic Education and Child Development Minister Anupma Jaiswal had to resign apparently on the account of failing to deliver winter clothing to school children on time last year while Minister of State for Mining, Archana Pandey had to resign after her personal assistant was caught seeking bribe in a sting operation last year. Varanasi North MLA Ravindra Jaiswal has been inducted as a Minister of State with independent charge as an apparent replacement of Anupma Jaiswal.