Lucknow: With assembly polls just 4 months away, the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh led by Yogi Adityanath on Sunday inducted 7 new ministers into the cabinet.
While former union minister and Brahmin face Jitin Prasada were given cabinet berth, rest six were made Ministers of State.
The others who took oath as MoS were Chatrapal Gangwar, Paltu Ram, Dr Sangeeta Balwant, Sanjeev Kumar, Dinesh Khatik and Dharamveer Prajapati. Of these MoS, three are from the Dalit community and the rest three are OBCs.
The oath was administered by Governor Anandiben Patel at the Rajbhawan on Sunday evening in the presence of chief minister Yogi Adityanath and his ministerial colleagues.
This was the second cabinet expansion of the Yogi Adityanath government, though at the fag end of the tenure. The assembly polls in UP will be held in February-March, 2022.
Now the total strength of the Yogi ministry has reached 60, the maximum.
Though earlier there was some doubt on the expansion during the Pitrapaksh BJP leaders claimed that this was not an issue at all.
The ruling BJP has taken care of the caste and regional representation in the expansion just before the crucial 2022 assembly elections.
No present minister will be removed, sources said.
After the formation of the state government on March 19, 2017, the first ministry expansion of the Yogi Adityanath government was done on August 22, 2019.
During that time there were 56 members in the cabinet. Three ministers have died due to a corona infection. In the first cabinet expansion, six ministers with independent charge were administered the oath of the cabinet, in which three new faces were also there.
In the Yogi Adityanath cabinet, there are 22 cabinet ministers, 9 ministers of independent charge and 22 ministers of state for CM Yogi Adityanath. The total number of ministers is 53 and the state can have 60 ministers as per the strength of the assembly.
