New faces to be part of second Yogi Cabinet in UP, caste balance, performance to decide new team

By Suchitra Mukherjee
Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], March 13 : Days after the BJP retained power for the second consecutive term in Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is scheduled to visit Delhi on Sunday to discuss the new cabinet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
National President JP Nadda, Amit Shah and BL Santosh in Delhi will be present at the meeting. The swearing-in ceremony date will also be discussed during the meeting.
As per sources, the BJP is also considering several new faces in the Cabinet along with the new Deputy Chief Minister.
State President Swatantrata Dev Singh, BJP leader Sunil Bansal, state in-charge Radha Mohan Singh will also accompany Adityanath to Delhi on Sunday.
It is being speculated that the BJP leadership has prepared a basic list of probable Deputy Chief Ministers and Ministers on the basis of qualification, caste and regional equations because BJP gives place to every caste in its cabinet. The Central leadership will have the final say on the list.
For the post of Deputy Chief Minister, the names of Swatantra Dev Singh, Baby Rani Maurya, Brijesh Pathak and Keshav Prasad Maurya are in talks. Swatantra Dev Singh was the Transport Minister, apart from this he was the BJP state president.
Keshav Prasad Maurya has definitely lost from Sirathu seat in the elections this time but he is the face of OBC. As Deputy Chief Minister, he has governed the state well, so once again he can be made the Deputy Chief Minister.
Baby Rani Maurya has been the Governor of Uttarakhand and is a well-known face of Jatav society in Uttar Pradesh. Brijesh Pathak, of the Brahmin community, has been a law minister in the Uttar Pradesh government. UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh, who is also a Kurmi leader, was one of the prominent faces behind BJP's big win in Uttar Pradesh.
Law Minister Brijesh Pathak, who won from Lucknow Cantonment seat, may get the role of Deputy Chief Minister in the Yogi government to maintain the Brahmin equation.
In Yogi Sarkar 2, the leadership is also considering the inclusion of two former police officers in the new cabinet- Rajeshwar Singh and Asim Arun.
The newly-elected MLA from Sarojini Nagar seat of Lucknow, Dr Rajeshwar Singh was an officer of Uttar Pradesh Police. BJP MLA Aseem Arun has won from Kannauj (Sadar) seat. Asim Arun was an officer of the rank of ADG. Before being the first police commissioner of Kanpur, Asim Arun's father late Ram Arun was twice the DGP of Uttar Pradesh.
Many Bharatiya Janata Party leaders have won by a huge margin of votes. In this, the candidate from the Noida Assembly seat and Union Defense Minister Rajnath Singh's son Pankaj Singh has won by a margin of 1,81,513 votes.
The BJP senior leaders are also discussing Pankaj Singh getting a place in the Yogi cabinet. Till now, no one from Noida had got a place in the Yogi cabinet, so it is expected that this time Pankaj Singh, who has performed brilliantly in 2017 and now in 2022 too, can be made a minister in the Yogi government.
Shalabh Mani Tripathi, a Brahmin young face close to Yogi and an experienced journalist, can be made a minister in the Yogi cabinet. Shalabh has also been in ABVP earlier.
Allies Apna Dal and Nishad Party would also get a place in the Cabinet-MLC Ashish Patel and Sanjay Nishad can get important roles to play.
Besides the new faces, old leaders like Suresh Khanna, who won with a landslide victory from the Shahjahanpur seat for the ninth consecutive time, can also be made a minister.
Brijesh Pathak and Keshav Prasad Maurya can also be part of the cabinet again.
The swearing-in of the Yogi government is likely to be held on March 15 or 21.
Adityanath on Friday tendered his resignation to Governor Anandiben Patel at the Raj Bhavan in Lucknow.
Following the massive victory in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, Adityanath on Friday held a meeting with his ministerial colleagues at the party office in Lucknow. Adityanath, a monk-turned-politician, won his first-ever Assembly election by a margin of 1,03,390 from Gorakhpur Urban constituency, defeating the Samajwadi Party candidate Subhawati Upendra Dutt Shukla, who secured 62,109 votes in the recently-concluded UP Assembly elections. Adityanath will be the first Chief Minister in the last 37 years to return to power after completing a full term in the state.