Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday appointed six new ministers to his cabinet, including two at the cabinet level and four state secretaries, while promoting two ministers of state (MoS) to independent duties – a move aimed at strengthening the BJP’s socio-political base ahead of the 2027 Assembly elections.
The expansion is seen as an attempt to adjust social and political equations in favor of the BJP as the party seeks a third consecutive term in the state.
The new ministers are former BJP president Bhupendra Chaudhary and former Samajwadi Party minister Manoj Pandey. The new MoS are Krishna Paswan, Kailash Rajput, Surendra Diller and Hansraj Vishwakarma.
Those filed include Ministry of Science, Technology, Electronics and IT Ajit Pal, who represents Sikandara Assembly constituency in Kanpur Dehat, and Ministry of Energy and Additional Power Sources Somendra Tomar, an MLA from Meerut (South) Assembly constituency. Both have been sworn in as Minister of State (independent official) and are likely to be allotted new portfolios soon.
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Governor Anandiben Patel administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new and elevated ministers in a simple ceremony attended by senior ministers and officers at Jan Bhavan in Lucknow on Sunday.
The second cabinet expansion of the Yogi 2.0 government is also seen as the BJP’s attempt to take on the main opposition, the SP, which has continued to focus on the PDA (Pichhda, Dalit and Alpsankhyak) formula.
Among those recruited are one Brahmin, three OBCs and two Dalit leaders.
Among the new ministers, Pandey, a Brahmin leader, represents the Unchahar assembly constituency of Rae Bareli – the parliamentary seat of the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi. He is a former chief whip of the SP, a former minister in the Akhilesh Yadav government and an unaffiliated MLA. Bhupendra Chaudhary, a Jat leader, former minister and now MLC member, was the first to take the oath of office.
With the appointment of Dalit leader Krishna Paswan, BJP MLA from Khaja in Fatehpur, the number of women in Yogi’s ministry has risen to six.
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Of the six newly appointed ministers, two ministers hail from the west, one from the east and three from central Uttar Pradesh. Chaudhary is from Moradabad, while new state minister Surendra Diller, a Dalit leader and BJP MLA, represents the Khair Assembly constituency in Aligarh. Hansraj Vishwakarma, a BJP MLC and OBC leader, is the BJP president in Varanasi – Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency.
The other three new ministers are from central UP: OBC leader Kailash Rajput represents Tirwa Assembly constituency in Kannauj, while Pandey and Krishna Paswan also hail from the district.
The Yogi 2.0 ministry had six vacant positions. Sunday’s expansion took the number of government ministers to 23, with 16 ministers (independent officials) and 21 ministers, bringing the total number of ministers to 60 – the maximum allowed. Finance and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Khanna said that this is an effort to ensure that the government works in an optimal manner.
