Expansion of Yogi ministry expected soon after President Kovind’s visit ends
LUCKNOW: The much-talked about expansion of the Yogi Adityanath government is expected soon after President Ram Nath Kovind’s four-day Uttar Pradesh visit is over on Sunday, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders indicated on Saturday.
The Yogi government has 53 ministers, including 23 cabinet ministers, nine ministers of state (independent charge) and 21 ministers of state at present. It can accommodate seven more.
“The template is going to be the same,” a BJP leader said, hinting that the focus on OBCS (Other Backward Classes) and Dalits would continue as was evident when the party accommodated seven faces from Uttar Pradesh in the Union council of ministers in July.
Of the seven faces from UP, three each were OBCS and Dalits and there was a lone Brahmin.
The expansion would also indicate how the BJP prefers to deal with its allies ahead of the UP assembly election due in early 2022, party leaders said, indicating that leaders from both Apna Dal (Sonelal) and the Nishad Party could be accommodated in the Yogi ministry.
Leaders with a clean track record are expected to be given priority in the election year, party leaders said.
All discussions on the subject have reportedly been held with chief minister Yogi Adityanath and other senior UP leaders, including state BJP chief Swatantra Dev and general secretary (organisation) Sunil Bansal.
“The exercise got delayed due to the demise of Kalyan Singh and the President’s visit. Now, it’s all set,” a BJP leader said.
Sanjay Nishad, the head of the Nishad party that has a hold on members of the riverine community like fishermen and boatmen, after several rounds of meetings with the top BJP leadership is camping in New Delhi ahead of the exercise.
Nishad, whose son Praveen is a Lok Sabha MP from Sant Kabir Nagar on a BJP ticket, had a meeting scheduled with BJP chief JP Nadda on Saturday. The meeting, however, failed to materialise ostensibly owing to Nadda’s busy schedule.
“The BJP is like a big brother,” Nishad said in Delhi while reiterating his view about his party’s perceived influence in 160 assembly constituencies of the state.
He has made it clear that the Nishad party would contest the 2022 UP elections with the BJP.
Nishad is expected to be one of the four names from the list of nominated MLCS to be declared ahead of the expansion, the party leaders said.
Apna Dal (S) MLC Ashish
Patel, husband of Union minister and Mirzapur MP Anupriya Patel, is also said to be among the leaders in the running for a ministerial berth in UP.
The BJP leaders indicated that the party may also give a chance to groom its own homegrown leaders from the community.
Jitin Prasada, the Brahmin leader from the Congress who has switched sides to the BJP and only recently shared photos of his family meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is expected to be a top claimant for a cabinet berth in the Yogi government, party leaders said.
Among Dalit faces, the party is expected to opt for either veteran Vidyasagar Sonkar or Ravi Sonkar, the party MLA from Mahadeva assembly constituency in Basti district, BJP leaders said. Sangeeta Balwant Bind, the party’s 41-year-old woman postgraduate MLA, is also said to be in the running.