UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath revamps his cabinet after two and a half years

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday expanded his 29-month-old cabinet inducting 23 ministers.It includes six cabinet, six ministers of state with Independent charge and 11 ministers of state.

The reshuffle takes the strength of the ministry to 56 from earlier 43. The state can have up to 60 ministers.

The ministers were administered the oath of office by Governor Anandiben Patel at Gandhi auditorium of Raj Bhavan in Lucknow amid intermittent slogans of ‘har har Mahadev’ and ‘Bharat mata ki jai’.

Those administered oath include 18 new faces. Four ministers of state (independent charge) have been elevated to cabinet rank while a minister of state has been rewarded with minister of state (independent charge) rank.

Wednesday’s reshuffle preceded resignation by five ministers. On Tuesday night resignations of five ministers had been accepted. These included UP BJP chief Swatantradev Singh, minister for finance Rajesh Agarwal.

The expansion was reportedly slotted for Monday but was put off.