DNA Exclusive: Decoding Yogi Adityanath government 2.0

Yogi Adityanath took oath as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh for the second consecutive time On Friday at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee International Cricket Stadium in Lucknow. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states and many Union ministers were present on the occasion. 

In today's DNA, Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary analysed the three big highlights of Yogi government’s swearing-in. 

The first highlight is social engineering. In total, 52 ministers were sworn in today. Out of these, maximum 20 ministers are from the OBC community. While 8 ministers are from the Dalit community, 7 Brahmins, 6 Thakurs, 4 Banias, 2 Bhumihars, 1 Kayastha, 1 Sikh, 1 Muslim, 1 Adivasi and 1 belong to the Punjabi Khatri community. The castes which supported the BJP in the Uttar Pradesh elections have been given prominence in the Cabinet. The ministers have been selected in such a way that it looks like a government of backwards and Dalits. 

When the Yogi government was formed for the first time in 2017, as many as 22 leaders of the OBC community were appointed ministers in the Cabinet. But then, the number of ministers in the government was also 60. However, this time the number has come down to 52. Many senior leaders like Dinesh Sharma, Siddharthnath Singh, Shrikant Sharma and Jai Pratap Singh have been dropped from the Yogi Cabinet this time.

Thirdly, this time also there are two Deputy CMs in Yogi Adityanath's team. The first among them is Keshav Prasad Maurya, who was the Deputy CM in the first term as well. However, this time he had lost the election. The other Deputy Chief Minister is Brajesh Pathak, who joined BJP before the 2017 Legislative Assembly elections.