The Yogi Adityanath government’s long-awaited Cabinet enlargement could happen next week. This will be critical in the run-up to the state assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh in 2022.
According to insiders, Jitina Prasada may be given a ministerial position to address the caste issues before the elections. Apart from Prasada, Somendra Tomar of Meerut, Krishna Paswan of Fatehpur, Tejpal Gurjar of Dadri, Ghaziabad, Sanjay Nishad of Nishad Party, Ramchandra Vishwakarma, Manju Siwach of Modinagar, and Ashish Patel of Apna Dal can also be considered for a position in the Yogi cabinet.
The UP BJP’s senior leadership recently met with CM Yogi Adityanath to discuss the names, which were then sent to Delhi for final approval. The names have now been given the official light by Delhi, according to sources. In addition to these dignitaries, Uttar Pradesh BJP President Swatantra Dev Singh and organisation General Secretary Sunil Bansal attended the key meeting at Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s official residence in Delhi.
In the Yogi government, there are now 23 Cabinet ministers, nine ministers with independent charge, and 22 ministers of state, for a total of 54 ministers. Six cabinet positions are now empty. Even if the Yogi government does not remove any members from the Cabinet, six new ministers might be recruited into the Cabinet in such a scenario.
On August 22, 2019, the Yogi government increased the Cabinet following the creation of the State government on March 19, 2017. His Cabinet consisted of 56 people at the time.
