Adityanath to expand cabinet, fill berths after 3 ministers move to LS

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath will soon expand his cabinet and fill berths created by three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ministers' election to the Lok Sabha and a minister who was sacked.

Rita Bahuguna Joshi, Satyadev Pachauri, and S P Singh Baghel contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Allahabad (Prayagraj), Kanpur, and Agra. Om Prakash Rajbhar, president of BJP ally Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), was sacked from the council of ministers after he announced he will field candidates in 39 Lok Sabha seats and support Opposition nominees.

The government has 45 ministers, including the chief minister, and it can induct at least 19 more (15 per cent of the total strength of Vidhan Sabha--403).

BJP had swept Lok Sabha polls by winning 62 of total 80 constituencies in UP, while its ally Apna Dal (S) won 2 others, thus making it 64 for the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Oppositional Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Samajwadi Party (SP) and Congress could just win 10, 5 and 1 seat(s) respectively.

Meanwhile, UP would also witness bypolls on 11 assembly constituencies, since several legislators belonging to different political parties had been elected to Parliament.

BJP had given tickets to 10 legislators, including 4 ministers, to contest the general elections, of which 9 won their electoral battles. The wining candidates, apart from the three ministers, included Upendra Rawat (Barabanki), R K Patel (Chitrakoot), Akshaywar Lal Gond (Bahraich), Sangamlal Gupta (Pratapgarh), Pradeep Chaudhary (Saharanpur), Rajvir Valmiki (Aligarh).