BJP Allies Appointed to Yogi Adityanath's Cabinet in Uttar Pradesh

In an attempt to win over even the most conservative voters in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP's newfound allies were rewarded on Tuesday with cabinet posts in the Yogi Adityanath administration.

Anil Kumar of the Rashtriya Lok Dal, Dara Singh Chauhan and Sunil Kumar Sharma of the BJP, and Om Prakash Rajbhar, head of the Suheldeo Bharatiya Samaj Party, were the four new ministers who took the oath of office on Tuesday. Their portfolios will shortly be made public.

During the 2017 Assembly elections, Rajbhar supported the BJP and served as the Adityanath government's minister for the welfare of the lower classes. In 2019, he announced his resignation from the ministry, citing the Adityanath government's disregard for the welfare of the poorest and Dalit people.

After declaring at the time that "it is one of the most corrupt governments," he allied himself with Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party. He did, however, rejoin the NDA last year.

Rajbhar represents the Ghazipur district as an MLA from Zahoorabad.

Shortly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave Chaudhary Charan Singh, the grandfather of RLD president Jayant Chaudhary, the Bharat Ratna, the Rashtriya Lok Dal left the INDIA group and joined the NDA last month.

Kumar represents the Muzaffarnagar district as an MLA from Purkaji.

Chauhan resigned from the SP last year and joined the BJP, despite having been elected as an MLA from Ghosi in the Mau district in 2022 on an SP ticket. But as a BJP candidate, he was defeated by Sudhakar Singh of the SP in the by-election. He was later sent to the Legislative Council by the BJP.

Sharma represents the Ghaziabad district as a BJP MLA from Sahibabad.

Sharma's appointment to the Adityanath ministry is a step in the right direction, according to BJP officials who cite ground reports indicating the party needs to work for the Brahmin community. People in rural Uttar Pradesh generally believe that the chief minister is biased towards his own Kshatriya caste and not so much towards the Brahmins.

As to a poll conducted by the BJP's state unit, the party's winning margin in many parliamentary seats of the state might be as low as 10,000 votes under the present circumstances due to the disconnection between the incumbent MPs and the electorate. A BJP leader who asked to remain anonymous said, "The party has to work hard to change this situation because there are on average 20,000 floating votes and it can turn to any side at the eleventh hour."

"We have been appointed ministers to take the government's schemes to the masses and ensure the victory of the NDA in the Lok Sabha elections," said Rajbhar upon his swearing-in.

"I congratulate all the friends for taking the oath as ministers in Uttar Pradesh," Adityanath wrote in Hindi on X. I'm hoping that everyone of you will implement the "Modi Ki Guarantee" and contribute to the "development of UP."

The BJP created the catchphrase "Modi Ki Guarantee" to reassure voters that, should he be elected to a third straight term in office, Modi will advance the nation.