In Yogi Adityanath cabinet 2.0, Pathak elevated, state BJP chief rewarded
Besides Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, 52 ministers, including two deputy chief ministers, took oath as part of the new cabinet.
Besides Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, 52 ministers, including two deputy chief ministers, took oath as part of the new cabinet. While some were new entrants, others retained power from the 2017 cabinet. Yet, there were some who carried special significance – a deputy chief minister that was retained despite losing his seat, a bureaucrat that worked in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office and a leader who served as governor only months before the elections.
Keshav Prasad Maurya, for instance, was reappointed as deputy chief minister despite his defeat by Samajwadi Party’s Pallavi Patel from Sirathu in the elections. His retention, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders said, is being seen as recognition of his efforts to woo the non-Yadav OBCs, considered the mainstay of the party’s emphatic victories in the state since the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Of the 10 ministers who lost the elections, Maurya was the only one retained by the party in the new cabinet. Soon after being sworn in, he said: “Now, under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we will work even harder to help the poor and will approach 2024 with the mission to win 75 plus seats.”
Another crucial appointment was the elevation of law minister in the former government, Brajesh Pathak, to the role of deputy chief minister. Pathak had quit the Bahujan Samaj Party and joined the BJP in August 2016. A key Brahmin leader, his elevation is being seen as a reward for the role he played during the second wave of the Covid pandemic.
“I think he was among the select ministers who were proactive during the Covid wave, responding to SOS calls. He enjoys a cordial relationship with all party leaders and that’s probably one of the factors responsible for his elevation. The fact that he is a Brahmin might have helped his cause further,” political observer Irshad Ilmi said.
A Jatav Dalit and former woman mayor of Agra, Baby Rani Maurya was also appointed as a cabinet member. Maurya had served as Uttarakhand governor since August 2018 before quitting in September 2021 to become the party’s national vice-president. Tasked with aligning the Jatav votes for the BJP in Agra – considered a Dalit stronghold – Maurya had held meetings across the state as she targeted the Mayawati led BSP. Well-articulated and educated, Maurya will help the party reach out to women and Dalits, and is expected to land a key portfolio, party leaders said.
The Yogi Adityanath cabinet 2.0 also includes Swatantra Dev Singh, who had held intensive poll campaigns across Uttar Pradesh as the state party chief.
“He is a cadre’s delight. Not one to shy away from hard work, he was a key person in organising the parivartan rallies featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the run up to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Even after becoming the BJP chief, there was no let up in his efforts,” a party leader said, seeking anonymity. Another significant name in the new cabinet is A K Sharma, former Gujarat cadre IAS officer who served in Modi’s office when he was Gujarat chief minister and later moved to the Prime Minister’s Office when Modi became Prime Minister.
After he joined the BJP, Sharma was sent to manage the Covid-19 crisis in Varanasi, Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency.
The other bureaucrat who made the cut is 1994 batch IPS officer Asim Arun, who served as Kanpur police commissioner weeks before the elections. Arun, also a Dalit, has also served in the anti-terror squad of the Uttar Pradesh Police.
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