Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, plans to appoint at least four new ministers to his cabinet later today. Only a few days remain before the dates of the next Lok Sabha elections are declared, when new ministers will be sworn in.
According to sources, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party chief OP Rajbhar , Anil Kumar of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and Dara Singh Chauhan and Sunil Sharma of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be among those to be inducted. The Sahibabad seat in Ghaziabad was won by Sunil Sharma with an unprecedented margin in the UP elections of 2017 and 2022. Five years after leaving the government and breaking away from the ruling BJP, Rajbhar is expected to rejoin the Yogi Adityanath Cabinet. Leader of the RLD Anil Kumar hails from West Uttar Pradesh. Formerly a member of the INDIA bloc, the RLD recently declared its alliance with the NDA. According to the sources by Tuesday night, UP Governor Anandiben Patel will probably give the new ministers their oath of office.
On Tuesday morning, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath presided over a cabinet meeting. During a meeting last week in the nation’s capital, the BJP’s central leadership finalized the names of the new ministers.
Ever since Samajwadi Party legislator Dara Singh Chauhan announced his resignation from the party and ran on a BJP ticket to challenge Ghosi in the by-election, there has been conjecture regarding the expansion of the cabinet. Despite losing the election, Chauhan was able to join the UP government council of ministers after being elected as an MLC from the BJP quota in January.
In July 2023, Rajbhar broke with the Samajwadi Party and joined the NDA, which is led by the BJP. He declared last week that if he wasn’t appointed to the cabinet he wouldn’t celebrate Holi. There are currently 52 members of the UP council of ministries. Depending on its strength at least eight more people can join.
In Yogi Adityanath’s first cabinet, Rajbhar served as the minister of welfare for the backward classes. However, he broke with the BJP in the middle of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections due to differences over seat sharing. After that he ran for six seats in the UP 2022 assembly election with the SP, but he returned to the NDA in the previous year.
The backward Rajbhar community, which makes up over 20% of the population in eastern Uttar Pradesh is the main source of support for the SBSP which also claims influence over about 28 Lok Sabha seats. Chauhan who previously served as the BJP’s representative for Ghosi is a powerful figurehead for the Nonia sub-caste of OBCs, which is primarily found in Azamgarh, Ghosi and Ghazipur-three seats that the BJP lost in 2019.
