Cabinet expansion in Uttar Pradesh, 7 ministers take oath

The Uttar Pradesh cabinet underwent an expansion today with seven ministers taking oath.
The seven are Jitin Prasada, Chhatrapal Singh, Paltu Ram, Sangita Balwant, Sanjeev Kumar, Dinesh Khatik, and Dharmvir Singh.

The state cabinet currently has 53 ministers and there were positions open for seven more according to the limit set by the constitution.

With the expansion, the upper limit of 60 has been reached.

The state Assembly has 403 seats, and the maximum in the cabinet can be 15 per cent of the total.

Prasada had joined the BJP from Congress in June this year.

They were administered the oath of office by Governor Anandi Ben Patel at a ceremony at the Raj Bhavan, in the presence of the Chief Minister and his cabinet colleagues.

Among those who were sworn in are one cabinet minister and six ministers of state.

The expansion comes barely months before assembly elections scheduled for 2022 in the state.

This is the third expansion of the the cabinet since Yogi came to power in March 2017.