While BJP retained Keshav Prasad Maurya as Yogi’s deputy despite his defeat, prominent names — Ashutosh ‘Gopal’ Tandon, Mahendra Singh, Shrikant Sharma and Sidharth Nath Singh — were dropped. Among other prominent faces in the ministry are former Gujarat-cadre IAS officer and PM Modi’s trusted bureaucrat AK Sharma who has been appointed as cabinet minister and Kanpur police commissioner and 1994-batch IPS officer, Asim Arun, who is one of the 14 junior ministers with independent charge
The social composition of Yogi’s new ministry, sworn in at a mega event hosted at the sprawling Ekana stadium and attended by the saffron star cast led by PM Modi, reflected a bid to balance the upper castes and non-Yadav backwards who formed the mainstay of BJP’s successful response to the Akhilesh Yadav-led challenge in the elections. Keshav Maurya’s continuation as deputy CM attests to his credentials as the party’s OBC face while Pathak’s appointment as the other deputy marks a big leg-up for the recent import from BSP who now has outshone old Brahmin faces from within the fold.
Just like last time, the ministry included only five women, including the party’s prominent Jatav face and former Uttarakhand governor Baby Rani Maurya. It is, however, possible that like the previous time, more women may be inducted later. Yogi has the room to add at least eight more ministerial colleagues.
Both allies of BJP, Apna Dal and Nishad Party, have found representation, with Union minister Anupriya Patel’s spouse Ashish and Sanjay Nishad getting cabinet berths. BJP has replaced Mohsin Raja, a Shia, with former ABVP functionary Danish Azad Ansari, a Sunni.
The other women ministers are five-time MLA Gulab Devi from Sambhal district, Pratibha Shukla, Rajni Tiwari, and Vijay Laxmi Gautam.
“I, Adityanath Yogi…,” the CM’s deep voice rang out from the loudspeakers at the Ekana stadium, bedizened with flowers, cutouts and posters of PM Modi, Union minister Amit Shah, BJP chief JP Nadda and Yogi himself, amid loud cheers from around 70,000 party workers gathered.
PM Modi, Shah, Nadda and a galaxy of senior party functionaries watched contentedly. The other high-profile dignitaries who attended the ceremony included chief ministers of 11 other BJP-governed states, industrialists, film stars and dharmacharyas of various sects and monasteries.
It was a historical moment for Yogi, the peethadheshwar of Gorakshapeeth, as he took oath as CM, becoming the only political figure in UP to return to office after a five-year tenure. Earlier, only Govind Vallabh Pant (1952), Dr Sampoornand (1957), Chandra Bhanu Gupta (1962), Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna (1974) and Narayan Dutt Tewari (1985) had resumed charge as UP CM, but their stints lasted up to two years only.
Born Ajay Singh Bisht in Pauri Garwhal’s Panchur village (Uttarakhand) on June 5, 1972, Yogi renounced worldly life before turning to spirituality in the early 1990s. His record in the UP Vidhan Sabha states he became the successor of Gorakshapeeth at an early age of 22 on February 15, 1994, and then head priest after the death of his guru, Mahant Avaidyanath, in September 2014.
