Yogi Adityanath takes oath as UP CM with his two deputies and 50 ministers

Lucknow, Mar 25 (PTI) Yogi Adityanath on Friday took oath as the Uttar Pradesh chief minister for a second term at a ceremony where 52 others were sworn in as ministers and Prime Minister Narendra Modi watched the proceedings that showcased the BJP’s triumph in the crucial state.

Keshav Prasad Maurya, who failed to win his seat in the assembly polls, is a deputy CM again. Outgoing law minister Brajesh Pathak too was sworn in as a deputy chief minister, replacing Dinesh Sharma in the previous Adityanath cabinet.

The ceremony at a Lucknow stadium that can hold over 50,000 people was designed to be a mega event, attended by top Union ministers, chief ministers from BJP-run states and dignitaries from the world of industry and entertainment.

A festive atmosphere prevailed at Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana stadium. BJP supporters chanted "Modi, Modi". As people waited for the main event, traditional dances were performed at the side stages.

Apart from the chief minister, 18 cabinet ministers -- including the two deputy CMs -- 14 ministers of state (independent charge) and 20 other ministers of state were administered the oath by Governor Anandiben Patel.

Nine cabinet-rank ministers in the previous ministry were dropped, including Deputy CM Dinesh Sharma.

Out of nine ministers of state with an independent charge in 2017, only two have been retained. But this time there are 14 ministers in this category.

Twenty-one of the 52 ministers – excluding the CM – are from the upper castes, seven of them Brahmins.

Twenty are from the Other Backward Classes (OBC), nine are Dalits and one each from the Muslim and the Sikh communities, as the BJP tries to achieve a caste balance that will help it in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

As the event progressed, the oath was administered to two and even four junior ministers in one go to save time.

Besides Modi, the ceremony was attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and BJP national president J P Nadda. Apart from the CMs of BJP-run state, JDU leader and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar took part in the event as an NDA partner.

Former Uttarakhand Governor Baby Rani Maurya, who too was counted among the frontrunners for the deputy CMs post, got a cabinet berth. So did BJP state unit president Swatantra Dev Singh and former IAS officer A K Sharma. Finance minister Suresh Khanna is back.

Jitin Prasada, who had quit the Congress to join the BJP ahead of the polls, also made it to the state cabinet.

On Twitter, PM Modi congratulated Adityanath and expressed confidence that his new government will write another "chapter of progress" in Uttar Pradesh while fulfilling the people's aspirations.

The BJP-led alliance won 273 of 403 seats in the UP Assembly polls. While the BJP got 255 seats, its allies Nishad Party and the Apna Dal (S) bagged 18.

This is the first time in over three decades that a party has won the assembly elections twice in a row in the populous state, a feat that BJP leaders feel brightens the chances of its return to power in the next Lok Sabha elections as well.

There can be up to 60 ministers including the chief minister in Uttar Pradesh under the constitutional provisions.

BJP ally Ashish Patel of Apna Dal (Sonelal) and Nishad Party chief Sanjay Nishad also took the oath as cabinet ministers. In the earlier government, Apna Dal (S) had one member with the MoS rank.

Danish Azad Ansari has been made a minister of state. He is the lone Muslim face in the Adityanath government.

Hailing from Balia, Azad has replaced Mohsin Raza as the representative of the minority community in Adityanath 2.0 government. He is not a member of the state assembly or the legislative council at present.

Former IPS officer Aseem Arun, Daya Shankar Singh, Nitin Agarwal and Kalyan Singh's grandson Sandip Singh have been made ministers of state (independent charge).

Several prominent members of the outgoing UP ministry do not find a berth in the new government. These include Satish Mahana, Ramapati Shastri, Siddarth Nath Singh and Srikant Sharma. But there is speculation that either Mahana or Shastri could get the Assembly Speaker’s post. Both are eight-time MLAs.

Shastri was appointed pro-tem speaker by the Governor for administering the oath to the new MLAs.

Some other names doing the rounds in political circles also did not make it to the dais. They include former Enforcement Directorate officer Rajeshwar Singh, Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav's daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav and Aditi Singh, who had switched over from the Congress to the BJP and won the Rae Bareli seat.

Excited BJP supporters started thronging the venue when the gates opened at 11 am, hours before the ceremony was to begin.