In a grand ceremony attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Yogi Adityanath took oath as Uttar Pradesh chief minister for the second consecutive term on Friday. Alongside him, prominent backward castes leader Keshav Prasad Maurya was also sworn in as deputy CM for a second term while the BJP’s Brahmin face Brajesh Pathak became Yogi’s other deputy. Besides, 52 MLAs were also sworn in as ministers of the state cabinet, which came together for its first meeting soon after the grand ceremony.
Uttar Pradesh governor Anandiben Patel administered the oath to Adityanath at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium in Lucknow. Among top BJP leaders were union home minister Amit Shah, BJP national president JP Nadda, defence minister Rajnath Singh, Haryana CM ML Khattar, Himachal Pradesh CM Jairam Thakur among others.
Adityanath will address his first cabinet meeting with additional chief secretaries, principal secretaries and all top officials on Saturday, March 26, at Yojana Bhawan in Lucknow. He will also attend the swearing-in ceremony of pro tem speaker at Raj Bhawan.
Yogi back in top chair
His return to power is being billed as a “historic” moment by many. Ahead of his swearing-in, BJP leader Ravi Kishen said Yogi’s return to power was a historic moment. He went onto say that now that the construction of Ram temple was on, all that was required was ‘Ramrajya’. After the 2017 assembly polls, Adityanath was considered an unexpected pick for CM. The BJP had just scored a landslide win and many did not consider the saffron-robed poster boy for Hindutva as a top pick for the top chair of the state. Back then, he was considered a rabble-rouser and often accused of making provocative remarks against Muslims.
But, this time round, his appointment is not much of a surprise. Now, with the BJP’s return to power in four out five poll-bound states and the monk’s massive win in UP, Adityanath has consolidated his place. Many political observers have predicted a bigger role for him in the BJP in coming years. The 48-year-old is the first CM in over three and a half decades to return to power in the state after completing a full five-year term.
He was born Ajay Singh Bisht in Pauri Garhwal’s Panchur, now Uttarakhand, on June 5, 1972. He left his home in 1990 to join the campaign to build the Ram temple in Ayodhya and became a disciple of Mahant Avaidyanath of the Gorakhnath temple in Gorakhpur. After Avaidyanath’s death in 2014, he took over as the head of the Gorakhnath ‘math’, a post he still holds. Adityanath went to school in his native village and later completed his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University.
Having entered politics at the age of 28, he was the youngest Lok Sabha member winning from Gorakhpur. His decisions after he became CM for the first time in 2017, confirmed his image as a Hindutva mascot. He is known for his decisions to ban illegal slaughterhouses with a crackdown on cow slaughter; as well as the much-controversial ‘love jihad’ law. He has often been accused of making deliberate attempts to polarise the state during the 2022 election campaign. He talked of an 80-20 split of votes, which many thought referred to the Hindu-Muslim ratio in the state, even if the CM denied this.
The two deputies
Maurya, a prominent OBC leader, is back as Yogi’s deputy CM for a second term despite losing the recent elections. But, his continuation speaks volumes about his popularity and hold over his community whose support was instrumental in BJP’s return to power. The 52-year-old lost from Sirathu by nearly 7,000 votes, but the party has reposed its faith in him.
He comes from a humble background and, like Yogi, the start of his political career is marked by the Ram temple movement. Party insiders say Maurya helped his parents in agricultural work, ran a tea shop and also sold newspapers in his early days. A “pracharak” of the VHP and the Bajrang Dal for 18 years, he first won from Sirathu in 2012 and came into the limelight in 2013, when he led a protest against the arrival of a Christian missionary in a college of Allahabad.
The other deputy CM is prominent Brahmin face Brajesh Pathak, who replaced Dinesh Sharma. In the previous Adityanath-led cabinet, Pathak served as the law minister. In the polls, Pathak won from the Lucknow Cantonment assembly segment. He had switched over to the BJP from Mayawati’s BSP before the 2017 assembly elections. He is considered a strong leader and was also called in by many candidates for poll campaigning. He started with student politics in 1989, and was the president of Lucknow University in 1990.
Ministers in Yogi’s 2.0 govt
A total of 52 names are there on the list of new ministers in the Adityanath-led government, while the central leadership could add some more names. According to the instructions of Prime Minister Modi, educated and grassroots leaders of different classes and regions will get priority, while maintaining regional balance of caste.
There are 18 cabinet ministers, 20 ministers of state as well as 14 MoS (independent charge). This list has 20 OBC faces, five women, two leaders from allied parties, seven Brahmins, six Kshatriyas, four Vaishyas, eight Dalits, two Bhumihar community leaders, as well as one each from Muslim, Kayastha and Sikh communities.
When it comes to regional balance, 16 ministers are from western UP, 15 from Purvanchal, six each from central and Awadh regions, five from Rohilkhand and four ministers from Bundelkhand.
Besides the two deputy CMs Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak, the list of ministers include the names of Surya Pratap Shahi, Suresh Kumar Khanna, Swatantra Dev Singh, Baby Rani Maurya, Laxmi Narayan Chaudhary, Jaiveer Singh, Dharmpal Singh, Nand Gopal ‘Nandi’, Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary, Anil Rajbhar, Jitin Prasad, Rakesh Sachan, Arvind Kumar Sharma, Yogendra Upadhyay, Ashish Patel and Sanjay Nishad.
Ministers of state (independent charge) include Nitin Agarwal, Kapil Dev Agarwal, Ravindra Jaiswal, Sandeep Singh, Gulab Devi, Girish Chandra Yadav, Dharmveer Prajapati, Asim Arun, JPS Rathore, Dayashankar Singh, Narendra Kashyap, Dinesh Pratap Singh, Arun Kumar Saxena and Dayashankar Mishra ‘Dayalu’.
Ministers of state include Mayankeshwar Singh, Dinesh Khatik, Sanjeev Gaud, Baldev Singh Aulakh, Ajeet Pal, Jaswant Saini, Ramkesh Nishad, Manohar Lal Mannu Kori, Sanjay Gangwar, Brajesh Singh, KP Malik, Suresh Rahi, Somendra Tomar, Anup Pradhan ‘Valmiki’, Pratibha Shukla, Rakesh Rathor Guru, Rajni Tiwari, Satish Sharma, Danish Azad Ansari and Vijay Laxmi Gautam.
Lone Muslim minister
Trying to strike the right caste equations and as part of inducting people from various castes and communities, the Adityanath-led government also has a Muslim minister. Danish Azad Ansari was sworn in as a minister of state. Ansari said he was surprised in the morning on receiving a call from the CM’s residence as the 33-year-old got a chance to join Adityanath’s team. The young leader has been serving as the state general secretary of the BJP Minority Morcha (UP).
Space for former bureaucrats
Two retired bureaucrats found a place in Yogi’s cabinet. While ex-IAS officer Arvind Kumar Sharma was sworn in as a cabinet minister, retired IPS officer Asim Arun was inducted as an MoS (independent charge).
Sharma joined the BJP just before the UP legislative council elections in January after taking voluntary retirement and is a BJP MLC. Sharma was a 1988-batch IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre.
Arun is a resident of Kannauj and took VRS sometime back from the post of police commissioner of Kanpur. He then contested the elections from Kannauj Sadar seat on a BJP ticket. He defeated three-time Samajwadi Party MLA Anil Dohre to win the constituency, which was considered a Yadav bastion.
(With PTI inputs)
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