E-Paper
22 ministers dropped from Yogi Adityanath cabinet 2.0
A total of 22 ministers, who served during the first term of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Uttar Pradesh, were dropped on Friday as the state’s new government took shape at a grand ceremony in Lucknow.
A total of 22 ministers, who served during the first term of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Uttar Pradesh, were dropped on Friday as the state’s new government took shape at a grand ceremony in Lucknow.
Former deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma, who had also held the secondary and higher education portfolio, was among the prominent faces to not find space in the new council of ministers, which includes 31 new entrants. He was replaced by Brijesh Pathak, who won the assembly elections from the Lucknow Cantt seat, as the deputy chief minister.
During the polls, Pathak had worked to expand the party in Brahmin-dominated central and eastern Uttar Pradesh. He had also played a key role in countering the Opposition’s attack on various issues. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a BJP leader said that Pathak had “replaced Sharma as the party’s Brahmin face as he succeeded in winning the community’s support for the party through his work ahead of the polls”.
Shrikant Sharma, Siddharth Nath Singh, Jai Pratap Singh, Ashutosh Tandon, Satish Mahana and Mahendra Singh, who were ministers in the last Yogi Adityanath government were also not appointed as ministers in the new government. Incumbent social welfare minister Ramapati Shastri was also dropped. Shastri was appointed as pro-term speaker of Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly on Wednesday.
Ram Naresh Agnihotri (excise), MoS Neelkanth Tiwari (tourism), MoS Ashok Kataria (transport), MoS Atul Garg (health minister), MoS Sri Ram Chauhan (horticulture and agriculture), MoS Jai Kumar Jacky (prison), MoS Anil Sharma (forest and environment), MoS Suresh Pasi (sugarcane development), MoS Chaudhary Uday Bhan Singh (MSME), MoS Ram Shankar Singh Patel (energy), MoS Neelima Katiyar (higher education), MoS Mahesh Chandra Gupta (urban development), MoS G S Dharmesh (social welfare) also did not find a place in the new cabinet.
Quote here on the revamped council
Mohsin Raza, the lone Muslim minister in the previous BJP government who held the minority welfare portfolio, was replaced by Damish Azad Ansari, who was the state general secretary of the BJP Minority Morcha and was also associated with the student’s organisation – Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).
A few former ministers who failed to make it to the new cabinet will be shifted to a unit entrusted with the task to gear up the party for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, a BJP leader said on condition of anonymity.
Some ministers who failed to perform in the previous government were dropped from the list for the new cabinet, the leader added.
