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Yogi meets Modi over UP cabinet picks after polls
There has been speculation surrounding the number of deputy chief ministers that the Yogi government 2.0 will have, though BJP leaders indicated that the shape of the new government is still under discussion.
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party president JP Nadda, home minister Amit Shah, defence minister Rajnath Singh and other senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders in Delhi on Sunday to discuss the contours of his new government expected to be formed after Holi, which falls on March 18 this year.
There has been speculation surrounding the number of deputy chief ministers that the Yogi government 2.0 will have, though BJP leaders indicated that the shape of the new government is still under discussion. At least one of the claimants to the deputy CM’s post this time is a Dalit woman, party leaders indicated while quickly clearing that “these were among the possibilities”.
The outgoing Adityanath government had two deputy CMs, an OBC and a Brahmin.
Since Dalits are understood to have voted for the BJP in a big way – for instance, in Agra, which has a sizeable Dalit electorate, the BJP won all the assembly segments – a Dalit woman as deputy CMs is being talked about as a strong possibility.
“The Yogi 2.0 ministry will carry a strong imprint of the chief minister this time. Unlike in the 2017 polls, when he emerged as the surprise candidate for chief ministership, this time the BJP went into the elections by projecting him as the CM face. He did his case a lot of good by winning by a margin of over 1 lakh vote from his bastion of Gorakhpur. He also helped the party sweep the four districts of Gorakhpur division, winning 27 of the 28 seats. Naturally, his elevated profile would reflect in his ministry,” said AP Tiwari, a political analyst.
BJP leaders have said that women voters played a key role in shaping the win. Of the 255 new BJP lawmakers and 18 others who won on tickets of its allies -- Apna Dal (Sonelal) and Nishad Party -- at least 25 were women, the highest among all parties.
Six women of the Samajwadi Party alliance won and a lone woman won on a Congress ticket. In all, 560 women contested the elections with the Congress fielding the most, 159 of them.
The BJP allies, too, would be represented in the Yogi government with at least one from Nishad Party and two from Apna Dal (Sonelal) likely to be in the government, party leaders said.
Since Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who staged an all-women march in the state capital on March 8, has declared that she is in UP for the long haul and would continue with her “ladki hoon, lad sakti hoon (I am a woman, can accept a challenge)” campaign, the Yogi 2.0 ministry could have bigger representation of women, BJP leaders said.
There was speculation pertaining to the role the party would assign to SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s sister-in-law Aparna Yadav, who boosted the BJP campaign by joining the party just before the elections.
“Her role isn’t clear yet. Maybe, since Akhilesh ji has said he would quit the Karhal seat, the BJP may get her to contest the by-poll on the seat to set up an interesting contest. Or, she could be made an MLC or could well be a part of the Yogi government. Her role, too, would be under discussion,” a BJP leader said.
Modi, after his meeting with Adityanath, tweeted: “Met @myogiadityanath and congratulated him on the historic UP win. In last five years, he worked hard to fulfil people’s aspirations. I have full confidence that over the coming years, he will take UP even higher on the development path.”
Yogi started his Delhi visit from UP Sadan where, after being welcomed by Hindu Yuva Vahini volunteers, he met vice-president M Venkaiah Naidu. But it was his subsequent meeting with BL Santhosh, general secretary (organisation), that was followed even more keenly.
In June 2021, Santhosh had rushed to the state to initiate damage control measures amid Covid’s second surge, and the subsequent outrage, and to ensure the party stayed united ahead of the elections.
