Several old faces missing from Yogi’s new cabinet; economic affairs-related ministers changed

Yogi Adityanath took oath as the Uttar Pradesh (UP) chief minister for a second term on Friday at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium at Gomti Nagar in Lucknow. Two deputy chief ministers and 50 other ministers were also sworn in. But the highlight of this swearing-in ceremony was that several big names in the former Yogi government were not included in the new cabinet.

Those who could not find a place in this Yogi cabinet include Dinesh Sharma, Sidharth Nath Singh, Satish Mahana, Shrikant Sharma and Ramapati Shastri. Dinesh Sharma was the deputy chief minister in the last government but he has now been replaced by Brijesh Pathak, a Brahmin face. Dinesh Sharma is a Member of the Legislative Council (MLC).

Another significant thing is that no Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Ghaziabad or Kanpur, the two major industrial areas of UP, has been made a minister. Besides, the ministers who had portfolios associated with economic and industrial sectors have been excluded from the new cabinet.

Shrikant Sharma had been the energy minister till some time ago while Sidharth Nath Singh held the small and medium enterprises (SME) portfolio. Both of them will now be only MLAs. Similarly, Satish Mahana, who has been elected from the Maharajpur constituency in Kanpur, has also not been given any portfolio. He held the responsibility of industry in the last government.

Ramapati Shastri is the BJP MLA from Mankapur in Gonda district. He had been the social welfare minister in the last government but has not found a place in the new cabinet. Similarly, Jay Pratap Singh, Ramnaresh Agnihotri, Ashutosh Tandon, Neelkanth Tiwari and Mahendra Singh have also failed to get a place in the cabinet.

Mohsin Raza was the only Muslim minister in the last cabinet. He has been replaced by Danish Azad Ansari as the Muslim face in the new cabinet. Ministers Mukut Bihari Verma and Swati Singh were not given tickets by the BJP in the just-concluded Assembly polls.