Lucknow: Keeping in mind the 2022 Assembly elections, the Yogi Adityanath cabinet was expanded for the first time on Wednesday by elevating five of its ministers to Cabinet rank and inducting 17 new faces as ministers of state. The inductions and promotions have also been done keeping in mind the caste calculations that may play a crucial role ahead of the next state polls.
The regional and caste equations have been tactfully handled in the new cabinet by bringing in six Brahmins, four Kshatriyas, as many Vaishyas, a Gujar, Jat, Lodhi and one lawmaker from the Kashyap community. The newly sworn-in ministers hailing from the Brahmin community include Neelkanth Tiwari, Satish Dwivedi, Chandrika Prasad Upadhyay, Anand Swaroop Shukla, Anil Sharma and Ramnaresh Agnihotri. Kamal Rani Varun, a Scheduled Caste MLA, was given a cabinet rank.
Apart from her, ministers Shri Ram Chauhan and Giraj Singh Dharmesh represent the SC community. Ministers Ravindra Jaiswal, Kapil Dev Agarwal and Mahesh Gupta hail from the Vaishya community. Anil Rajbhar and Neelima Katiyar come from backward classes, while GS Dharmesh represents the Jatav community and Udaybhan Singh is a Jat MLA.
The new cabinet is also a mix of young and senior leaders. BJP spokesperson Sameer Singh told News18, “All communities have been given importance in the new cabinet. It is also a well-balanced mix of young and senior leaders.”
Earlier, despite a massive mandate in the 2017 Assembly elections, not all regions could be given representation in the government. This issue was resolved with the first expansion of the cabinet as now ministers from Agra, Bundelkhand, Muzaffarnagar, Varanasi, Basti and Kanpur zones have been included in it.
While Kapil Dev Agarwal is from Muzaffarnagar in west UP, Vijay Kashyap is from Charathaval, Anil Sharma from Bulandshahar, GS Dharmesh from Agra Cantonment, Chaudhary Udaybhan Singh from Fatehpur and Ramnaresh Agnihotri is from Mainpuri. Similarly, Chandrika Prasad Upadhyay from Chitrakoot has been included in the cabinet after the resignation of Swatantra Dev from Bundelkhand. Neelima Katiyar and Kamal Rani Varun have been included in the cabinet from Kanpur division, while Satish Dwivedi is from Basti division and Ravindra Jaiswal from Varanasi division.