Yogi Adityanath took oath last week for a second consecutive term as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, heading a team which has 32 new faces and two deputy CMs in Brajesh Pathak and Keshav Prasad Maurya. Keshav Prasad Maurya has been retained as deputy CM despite his defeat in the assembly poll. 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 swearing in ceremony at the Ekana stadium was 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.
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. PM Modi, Amit Shah, BJP chief Nadda and a galaxy of senior party functionaries watched the swearing in ceremony.
Dhami, 8 ministers take oath in Uttarakhand
Pushkar Singh Dhami took oath as the 12th chief minister of Uttarakhand at an event held at Dehradun’s Parade Ground. The ceremony was attended by the entire BJP top brass, including PM Modi, Amit Shah, defence minister Rajnath Singh, Nadda and Union minister Nitin Gadkari. Chief ministers from BJP-ruled states - Yogi Adityanath from UP, Shivraj Singh Chouhan from Madhya Pradesh, Assam’s Himanta Biswa Sarma, Haryana’s Manohar Lal Khattar and Goa CM-designate Pramod Sawant - also attended the ceremony.
Eight ministers were also sworn in during the ceremony. Dhami’s earlier cabinet team of Satpal Maharaj, Subodh Uniyal, Dhan Singh Rawat, Rekha Arya and Ganesh Joshi was repeated while four-time Bageshwar MLA Chandan Ram Das, two-time MLA from Sitarganj Saurabh Bahuguna (who is former CM Vijay Bahuguna’s son), and former speaker Premchand Aggarwal were the new inductees.
9- member Goa cabinet formed
Pramod Sawant - a three-time MLA on Monday took oath as the Chief Minister of Goa for the second time in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other dignitaries. This is his second consecutive term as CM. He became the chief minister for the first time in March 2019 after the demise of then chief minister Manohar Parrikar.
Along with Sawant, eight newly elected MLAs also took as ministers in the new Cabinet. The new ministers are Vishwajit Rane, Mauvin Godinho, Ravi Naik, Nilesh Cabral, Subhash Shirodkar, Rohan Khaunte, Govind Gaude and Atanasio Monserrate. Besides chief minister, the Goa cabinet can have 11 more ministers.
