21st UP CM to lead 46 ministers
BJP leader Yogi Adityanath, dressed in saffron robes, was sworn in as the 21st chief minister of Uttar Pradesh in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Sunday. He will now be known as Adityanath Yogi.
Mr Keshav Prasad Maurya and Mr Dinesh Sharma were sworn in as Deputy Chief Ministers along 44 other ministers.
Twenty-two cabinet ministers, nine ministers of state with independent charge and 13 ministers of state were administrated the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Ram Naik.
Within hours of taking the oath, the new chief minister of UP asked all his ministers to give details about their movable and immovable assets to the CM’s secretariat as well as the party office within 15 days.
Adityanath Yogi has also directed all ministers to refrain from making statements that could hurt the sentiments of any section of the people. In a brief interaction with the media, he said the party manifesto, or “Sankalp Patra”, would be implemented in letter and spirit at the earliest.
Five leaders who were sworn in — including the chief minister, both deputy chief ministers and one minister of state with independent charge (Swatantra Dev Singh) and one minister of state (Mohsin Raza) — are not members of the state legislature. A surprise omission was Pankaj Singh, son of union home minister Rajnath Singh, though Sandeep Singh, grandson of Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh, was made minister of state. The BJP has successfully tried to ensure a caste balance between upper castes and OBCs and also regional representation, apart from giving importance to senior leaders along with those who came in from outside.
One Muslim leader, Mohsin Raza, was also included in the council of ministers. The BJP had faced flak for not giving a single ticket to a Muslim in the assembly elections. A Sikh MLA Baldev Singh Olakh was also among those who sworn in.
Leaders like Swami Prasad Maurya, Dara Singh Chauhan, S.P. Singh Baghel and Brajesh Pathak who came in from BSP and Rita Bahuguna Joshi and Nand Gopal Nandi who left the Congress to join the BJP, were included in the cabinet.
The swearing in ceremony was an event marked by grandeur with almost the entire top BJP leadership in attendance.
Former chief ministers Mulayam Singh, Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav were the only leaders from the opposition. Former chief minister N.D. Tiwari was also present on the occasion.
Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Ananth Kumar, Venkaiah Naidu, Uma Bharti, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Kalraj Misra, Anupriya Patel, Mahesh Sharma and V.K. Singh were among the guests.