Six BJP leaders were on Monday sworn in as ministers in the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government. The oath of office was administered to them by Governor Anandiben Patel at Jan Bhavan in Lucknow. The newly inducted ministers are Bhupendra Chaudhary, Manoj Pandey, Krishna Paswan, Kailash Singh Rajput, Hansraj Vishwakarma and Surendra Diler.
In the significant expansion, Bhupendra Chaudhary and Manoj Pandey were sworn in as Cabinet Ministers. Meanwhile, Krishna Paswan, Kailash Singh Rajput, Hansraj Vishwakarma and Surendra Diler took oath as Ministers of State.
Besides expanding his team, CM Yogi elevated Ajit Singh Pal and Somendra Tomar as minister of state with independent charge.
The move comes ahead of the assembly elections in the state, which are due early next year.
This was the Yogi 2.0 government’s second cabinet expansion since coming to power. The latest reshuffle follows the first expansion carried out in March 2024, nearly two years after the government was formed.
During the earlier expansion, several leaders were inducted into the ministry, including alliance partner and SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar. Others who joined the cabinet at that time were RLD’s Anil Kumar, Sunil Kumar Sharma and Dara Singh Chauhan.
Akhilesh Yadav takes dig
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav mocked the BJP over the cabinet expansion, calling it a mere exercise to “kill time.” He also took a jibe at the party’s leadership style, remarking that the role of a Chief Minister in the BJP had been reduced to simply “reading from chits.”
Earlier, Yadav had questioned the inclusion of turncoat politicians, unhappy legislators, and alliance partners in the reshuffle.
"People are asking that there are only six vacancies in the Uttar Pradesh Cabinet, while the number of leaders who switched sides from other parties is much higher. Will all of them be rewarded with ministerial positions?" Yadav said in the post.
