Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s cabinet expansion took place this evening. A total of seven ministers took oath today. Jitin Prasada, who joined BJP in June this year, takes oath as a minister in the Yogi Adityanath’s cabinet. MLA Chhatarpal Gangwar takes oath as a Minister of State (MoS).
Paltu Ram, MoS SC, Balrampur; Sangeeta Balwant Bind MoS Bind, Ghazipur; Dharamveer Prajapati MoS, Agra; Sanjeev Kumar Gaur ST Sonbhadra; and Dinesh Khatik MoS SC, Meerut also took the oath of office. The oath-taking ceremony was conducted at 5:30 pm in the Raj Bhavan. There are a total of 14 Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs as ministers and Uttar Pradesh has more cabinet ministers. The Cabinet expansion appears to be an attempt to balance caste and regional aspiration, months ahead of the assembly polls.
At the Centre, the BJP has 84 MPs from Uttar Pradesh-62 in the Lok Sabha and 22 in the Rajya Sabha. For the first time, the state of Uttar Pradesh has a large representation in the central government. Winning of 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election is very important for the saffron party as its outcome is likely to decide the result of the 2024 Lok Sabha election.