The two-and-a-half year old Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday went for a major expansion with inclusion of 23 new ministers and elevation of 5 ministers of state to cabinet rank.Governor Anandiben Patel administered the oath of office to the new ministers at a simple function at Rajbhawan in the presence of chief minister Yogi Adityanath, his ministerial colleagues, assembly speaker Hridya Narain Dikshit, state BJP president Swantrantra Deo Singh and other dignitaries.
The ministers who took the oath included six each for cabinet rank and minister of state (independent charge) and rest 11 for minister of state.On the eve of the reshuffle ,six existing ministers have resigned from the ministry . The ministers who have resigned are finance minister Rajesh Agarwal , minister of states Anupuma Jaiswal, Dharampal Singh, Archana Pandey, Chetan Chauhan and Mukut Bihari Verma.
Now the total strength of the ministry has gone up to 56 including the chief minister.The ministers who were elevated from minister of state to cabinet rank are Dr Mahendra Singh, Bhupendra Singh Choudhury, Suresh Rana, Anil Rajbhar while the two new cabinet ministers are Ram Naresh Agnihotri and Ms Kamla Rani.
The minister took oath for the post of minister of state(independent charge) is Neelkanth Tiwari , and she has been elevated.The others are Kapil Deo Agarwal, Satish Dwivedi, Ashok Kataria, Shri Ram Chauhan and Ravindra Jaiswal. The BJP leaders who took the oath for ministers of state are Anil Sharma, Mahesh Gupta, Anand Swarup Shukla, Vijay Kashyap, Giriraj Singh Dharmesh, Lakhan Singh Rajput, Nilima Katiyar, Choudhury Uday Bhan Singh, Chandrika Prasad Upadhaya, Ramashanker Singh Patel and Ajit Pal Singh.
