Lucknow: In a prominent political move ahead of the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is likely to expand his cabinet on Sunday.
The cabinet expansion will take place at 5: 30 p.m. Seven new faces will be included in the cabinet.
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Uttar Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Swatantra Dev Singh confirmed this development to ABP News in a telephonic conversation.
This will be the second cabinet expansion of the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh.
The cabinet was expanded for the first time earlier on August 22, 2019. Several new faces were then included in the cabinet, while some were dropped. There were 56 members in the cabinet then.
Three ministers Chetan Chauhan, Kamal Rani Varun and Vijay Kashyap died due to Covid-19.
There were discussions several times earlier regarding expansion of the Cabinet, but the government shelved the proposal.
Dharamveer Prajapati, Chhatrapal Gangwar, Jitin Prasada, Sangeeta Balwant, Chhatrapal Gangwar, Ashish Patel and Sanjay Gaur are likely to take oath as ministers.
Uttar Pradesh’s election in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan and his team recently visited Lucknow. The decision to expand the cabinet was, according to sources, taken in the meetings held for three days during Pradhan’s visit.
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Currently, there are 53 ministers in the Yogi cabinet, including 23 cabinet ministers, 9 independent charge ministers and 21 ministers of state.
As per the Constitution of India, the Uttar Pradesh Council of Ministers, including the Chief Minister, can have maximum 60 members. Seven spaces are vacant now.