Lucknow, Mar 5 (UNI) After months long speculation four new ministers took oath in the first expansion of the second tenure of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath led government in Uttar Pradesh on Monday.
Governor Aandiben Patel administered oath of office and secrecy to the newly inducted ministers at a function held at Gandhi auditorium in Raj Bhawan.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, deputy CMs Keshav Prasad Maurya, Brajesh Pathak, a number of ministers and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders were present on the occasion.
Those who took oath as ministers included Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) MLA from Zahoorabad seat Om Prakash Rajbhar, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLC Dara Singh Chauhan, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) MLA from Purqazi in Muzaffarnagar Anil Kumar and BJP MLA from Sahibabad Sunil Sharma.
Om Prakash Rajbhar, who is president of SBSP, had served as a cabinet minister during the first tenure of Yogi as the CM. Following differences he parted ways with BJP and forged an alliance with Samajwadi Party (SP).
After 2022 assembly polls, he called off SBSP's alliance with SP citing differences with SP chief Akhilesh and re-joined the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Since his re-entry in the NDA there were speculations that he may be made a cabinet minister.
Similarly, Dara Singh Chauhan also served as cabinet minister during the first tenure as the CM. Just before the 2022 assembly polls. Dara Singh, who served as Forest Minister in Yogi cabinet, resigned from the post and primary membership of BJP and joined SP.
Dara Singh later contested Ghosi seat as SP candidate and emerged victorious. Recently, he resigned from the membership of the UP Legislative Assembly and primary membership of SP and re-joined BJP.
He contested the by-election for Ghosi seat as BJP candidate which fell vacant after his own resignation, but lost. After this he won the biennial elections for Legislative Council as BJP nominee.
Anil Kumar, who took oath as minister, is three times RLD MLA from Purkazi seat in Muzaffarnagar district. It may be noted that RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary, who was having an alliance with SP for a long time, parted ways with Akhilesh Yadav and went into NDA fold.
Anil Kumar is considered close to Jayant Chaudhary.
Sunil Sharma is MLA from Sahibabad seat in Ghaziabad district. A three-time MLA, Sharma is considered close to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and CM Yogi.
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