Yogi Adityanath begins 2nd term in Uttar Pradesh

Lucknow: Yogi Adityanath on Friday took oath as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister for the second term in a mega ceremony attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and top BJP leaders.

Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak were also sworn in as Deputy Chief Ministers. Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel administered the oath to Adityanath in a ceremony also attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and BJP national president J P Nadda. Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled States, including Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, attended the swearing-in ceremony. Adityanath was unanimously elected BJP Legislature Party leader on Thursday, after which he staked claim to form the government.

The swearing-in ceremony was held at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium, the venue having the capacity to accommodate 50,000 people. Suresh Khanna, Surya Pratap Sahi, Swatandra Dev Singh, Baby Rani Maurya and IAS-turned politician A K Sharma were administered oath as Cabinet ministers. BJP ally Ashish Patel of Apna Dal (Sonelal) and NISHAD party chief Sanjay Nishad also took oath as Cabinet ministers. Jitin Prasada, who had quit the Congress to join the BJP just ahead of the polls, made it to the Cabinet. Danish Azad Ansari has been made a minister of state.

He is the lone Muslim face in the Adityanath government. IPS-turned politician Aseem Arun, Daya Shakar Singh, Nitin Agarwal and Kalyan Singh's grandson Sandip Singh have been made ministers of state (independent charge). The BJP-led alliance had won 273 of 403 seats in the just-concluded Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. While the BJP got 255 seats, its allies Nishad Party and the Apna Dal (S) bagged 18.