Uttar Pradesh Cabinet expansion: The Uttar Pradesh government expanded its Cabinet on Tuesday. Four new minister took oath as ministers. These included Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief Om Prakash Rajbhar, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) MLA Anil Kumar and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders Dara Singh Chauhan and Sunil Kumar Sharma.
The four ministers were sworn-in in the presence of Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. The ceremony was held at Raj Bhavan in Lucknow on Tuesday.
After taking in oath as minister, RLD leader Anil Kumar thanked his party chief Jayant Chaudhary, Yogi Adityanath and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “This is a big responsibility, and I will try to work with honesty. We will work towards winning all 80 (Lok Sabha) seats here (in UP) and fulfil PM’s target of 400 seats,” he said.
Meanwhile, BJP’s Sunil Kumar Sharma said, “The responsibility that has been given to me by the Chief Minister and the party will be carried out responsibly. I will do what I learnt while being in the party…In Lok Sabha elections, we will win all 80 seats this time…”
Who are the new UP ministers?
> Sunil Kumar Sharma: He is a BJP MLA from Sahibabad in Ghaziabad district. He was elected for the first time as the Member of the Fifteenth UP Legislative Assembly in 2007. Between 2010-2012, he was the member of the Joint Committee on Women and Child Development. In 2017, elected as an MLA for the second time. He won the Sahibabad seat by a record margin in the 2017 and 2022 UP polls.
> Dara Singh Chauhan: Chauhan was originally in the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) before he joined the BJP ahead of the 2017 UP assembly polls. He joined the SP before the 2022 UP polls. He later returned to the BJP. He represents Nonia, a most backward caste in east UP. Chauhan was elected as an MLA from Ghosi as an SP candidate in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. He was made a minister in the first Yogi government between 2017 and 2022.
> Anil Kumar: He is an RLD MLA from Purkazi in Muzaffarnagar district. He has been a three-time MLA.
> OP Rajbhar: He is the chief of the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP). He is a former cabinet minister in the Uttar Pradesh government and is an MLA from the Zahoorabad constituency in Ghazipur.
This was the first cabinet expansion in Yogi Adityanath’s second term as chief minister. The current UP council of ministers has 52 members — 18 cabinet ministers, including the chief Minister, 14 ministers of state (independent charge) and 20 ministers of state.
The cabinet expansion is seen to be an attempt by the BJP to consolidate its position in several regions of the state ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, news PTI reported.
Last week, RLD leader Jayant Chaudhary met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president J P Nadda in Delhi and formally joined the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA). On Monday, RLD declared its candidates from Bijnor and Baghpat for the general elections.
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Published: 05 Mar 2024, 05:25 PM IST