Yogi Adityanath visits Delhi for quick consultations ahead of swearing-in
There is considerable interest on the names the BJP finalises for the post of deputy chief ministers as well as the speaker of the 18th Vidhan Sabha in Uttar Pradesh
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath attended the swearing-in ceremony of the Pushkar Singh Dhami government in Uttarakhand on Wednesday and then flew to Delhi for a round of quick consultations over contours of the second term of his government. The Delhi visit comes ahead of Thursday’s legislative party meeting at Lok Bhavan, the chief minister’s secretariat, in Lucknow.
Yogi Adityanath will be sworn in as the 33rd chief minister of Uttar Pradesh at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee stadium in Lucknow on Friday.
In Delhi, he held a meeting with Union home minister Amit Shah, the party’s central observer for overseeing the process of government formation in UP. Shah, too, was present in Uttarakhand for Dhami’s swearing-in. From there, the two leaders went to Delhi even as suspense over the composition of Yogi Adityanath’s new team continued to mount.
There is considerable interest on the names the BJP finalises for the post of deputy chief ministers as well as the speaker of the 18th Vidhan Sabha. The names of two senior ministers were being discussed for the speaker’s post. Both lawmakers are from west UP and one of them is a Brahmin.
“The speaker from west UP with the chief minister from east,” is the buzz as the BJP looks to get its regional balance right in government formation.
BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Ashok Bajpai said Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma, an OBC and a Brahmin respectively, may continue as deputy chief ministers. He added that Baby Rani Maurya, a former governor, could be a possible claimant for the third post of deputy CM. She is a dalit leader and was elected to the assembly from Agra Rural.
Two police officers who quit service to join the BJP, Asim Arun and Rajeshwar Singh, are also expected to get berths.
Arun is a former anti-terrorist squad chief and also served as the commissioner of Kanpur police. Rajeshwar Singh was a senior enforcement directorate official. There is considerable interest on the role party chooses to give to Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s sister- in-law Aparna Yadav who joined the BJP in the middle of the elections.
Shah will be in Lucknow for the BJP legislative party meeting on Thursday.
Ahead of the swearing- in, the freshly prepared backdrop of the stage at the stadium showcased the government’s focus.
The backdrop of the stage had these words written on it: “Hum nikal padey hain pran karke, naye Bharat ka naya Uttar Pradesh bananey ko ..shapath .. rashtravaad ki, sushasan ki, suraksha ki, vikas ki (we have set out to shape the new Uttar Pradesh of a new India. We take the pledge of nationalism, of good governance, of security and of development).”
It is here that Adityanath along with his new team will take oath. UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev, an MLC, also visited the stadium to take stock of the preparations along with senior bureaucrats.
Swatantra Dev was a minister in Adityanath’s first government before becoming the state party head. He is now again tipped to join Adityanath’s 2.0 government
Twelve chief ministers and five deputy chief ministers are among the VIPs who are to be present for the swearing-in. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, defence minister Rajnath Singh, union home minister Amit Shah, surface transport minister Nitin Gadkari, BJP chief JP Nadda, among various others, would attend the ceremony.
“Rollout of BJP’s pre-poll promises are also being discussed. Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah had repeatedly made those promises during the campaign, their roll-out immediately after government formation is also being discussed,” a BJP leader said.
The Vidhan Sabha secretariat would begin distributing invites for the swearing-in to the newly elected lawmakers – 255 of the BJP and 18 of its pre-poll allies Apna Dal (Sonelal) and Nishad party. The vistaraks (party cadres who worked at macro level at each assembly segment) started arriving in the state capital as the party has specially invited key cadres for the oath-taking.
