UP Cabinet Expansion: Yogi Government Gets Four New Ministers

Lucknow: After much anticipation, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief Om Prakash Rajbhar took oath along with Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) MLA Anil Kumar and Dara Singh Chauhan, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader who rejoined the party after a stint with the Samajwadi Party (SP) last year. Sunil Kumar Sharma, BJP MLA from Sahibabad, was also inducted into the Yogi Adityanath cabinet. 

With this, the number of ministers in the Yogi government is now 56. All four who were sworn in on Tuesday are cabinet ministers. Now, UP has 22 cabinet ministers, 14 ministers of state with independent charge and 20 junior ministers. 

The cabinet expansion, witnessed by Governor Anandiben Patel and CM Yogi Adityanath, was met with congratulatory messages for the newly sworn-in ministers. The cabinet was expanded almost months ahead of the Lok Sabha Polls 2024. The move aims to enhance the BJP's influence in various regions of the state in preparation for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

The Rashtriya Lok Dal and the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party are now a part of the ruling NDA.

After taking oath as a minister in the Uttar Pradesh cabinet, SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar said, "We continuously work towards our goal of serving the poor. To fulfil that goal, people in the government will take the government's schemes to the doors of the poor, bring them justice, and resolve their issues. No riot occurred in seven years under the rule of CM Yogi Adityanath. There is a rule of law."

Will SBSP Help BJP To Win Purvanchal?

The Om Prakash Rajbhar-led Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) rejoined the BJP-led NDA in 2023. 

In July 2022, when the Presidential elections were around the corner, cracks in the SP-led alliance were exposed as Rajbhar extended support to NDA nominee Droupadi Murmu while the SP backed Yashwant Sinha.

In 2017, SBSP fought the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections in alliance with the BJP and won four seats. Rajbhar got a ministerial berth in the state cabinet. However, Rajbhar has been one of BJP's most troublesome allies in Uttar Pradesh and has often criticised the state's Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government. 

Before the Assembly elections of 2022, SBSP stitched an alliance with the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party. The BJP suffered a loss of about 10-15 seats in Purvanchal, whereas Rajbhar's SBSP managed to win six seats. However, the alliance with SP could not last for long. A year later, the SBSP is now a part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Since then, the SBSP chief has been waiting for a ministerial berth. 

The Rajbhars, who constitute 20% of the Purvanchal population, are regarded as the second politically dominant community to reckon with after the Yadavs in eastern Uttar Pradesh. 

The Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) can impact around 10 Lok Sabha seats and 40 Assembly seats in seven to eight districts, including Azamgarh, Jaunpur, Ballia, Mau, Ambedkar Nagar, Ballia and some others, in the eastern Uttar Pradesh, according to poll analysts.

Similarly, Dara Singh Chauhan, who represented the Ghosi seat before rejoining the BJP, is an influential leader of the Nonia sub-caste of OBCs concentrated in Azamgarh, Ghosi and Ghazipur, three seats which the BJP lost in 2019. 

Chauhan's importance to the BJP can be ascertained from the fact that despite losing the bypolls from Ghosi after vacating the same seat and switching over to the BJP, he was made MLC by the party and is now a minister.

RLD Dalit MLA Part of Yogi Cabinet

Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) MLA Anil Kumar, from Purkazi in Muzaffarnagar, is now part of the Yogi Adityanath cabinet after its expansion on Tuesday evening.

Jayant Chaudhary, National president of RLD, suggested Anil Kumar's name and is the only minister in the cabinet from the RLD quota. Notably, Anil Kumar belongs to the dalit community and was a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA before 2017. He left BSP and joined RLD. Anil Kumar defeated the BJP candidate and won the Purkazi constituency in the last Assembly election in 2022. 

The political experts believe Anil was inducted into the Yogi Adityanath cabinet to reach out to dalit voters in western Uttar Pradesh. Similarly, giving a ministeral birth to Sunil Kumar Sharma, a BJP MLA from Sahibabad Assembly constituency in Ghaziabad district, was an attempt to woo Brahmin voters. 

Last week, Rashtriya Lok Dal formally joined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), weeks after RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary confirmed he would tie up with NDA ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

The RLD chief also met BJP national president JP Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.