UP portfolios announced, CM Yogi Adityanath keeps Home; Keshav Prasad Maurya gets PWD, Dinesh Sharma Education

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday announced portfolios of his ministers with Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya getting PWD and

Lucknow: Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday announced portfolios of his ministers with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister keeping Home with himself. 

The CM also kept the Information, Housing and Urban planning, Food and Civil Supplies, Mining, Personnel, Institutional Finance, Estate and several other departments according to the list released by Governor Ram Naik.

The crucial Finance Ministry has been allocated to Rajesh Agarwal, a six-time MLA and former deputy speaker of UP Assembly.

Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya has been given the Public Works Department (PWD), Food Processing, Entertainment Tax and Public Enterprises Department.

The other Deputy CM, Dinesh Sharma was given Higher and Secondary Education, Science and Technology, Electronics and IT departments.

Sidhharth Nath Singh has been assigned the charge of the Medical and Health while Surya Pratap Shahi got Agriculture, Agriculture Education and Agriculture Research.

Another senior minister Suresh Khanna will look after Parliamentary Affairs and Urban Development.

Young face Shrikant Sharma will handle the Power department, while Swami Prasad Maurya has been entrusted with Labour portfolio.

The lone Muslim face in the council of ministers, Mohsin Raza been made the Minister of State for Science and Technology, Electronics, IT, Muslim Waqf and Haj.

Yesterday, the UP CM had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and is understood to have finalised allocation of portfolios among the state ministers during talks with BJP chief Amit Shah.

On his first visit to the national capital after taking oath on Sunday, he had also met top Union ministers, including Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

Later he also spoke in the Lok Sabha.

Yogi took over as 21st CM of the country's largest state on Sunday and had vowed to pursue the agenda of 'sabka sath, sabka vikas'.

He is the five-time MP and the BJP's fourth CM of UP. Interestingly, the CM and his two deputies are not members of either House of the UP legislature.

Driven by the 'Modi wave', the BJP stormed to power in UP after 14 years on March 11, securing a three-fourths majority and demolishing rivals SP-Congress alliance and BSP in a keenly-contested Assembly polls.

The BJP got 312 seats in the 403-member Assembly. Its allies Apna Dal(S) and SBSP bagged nine seats and four seats, respectively, taking the total tally of the combine to 325.

On the other hand, the SP won 47 seats while its ally the Congress got 7 seats.

The BSP won just 19 seats, finishing a dismal third.

(With PTI inputs)