Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expanded his Cabinet on Tuesday with the addition of four new ministers, including SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar, RLD’s Anil Kumar, Dara Singh Chauhan, and Sunil Kumar Sharma. Governor Anandiben Patel administered the oath ceremony at Raj Bhavan in the presence of Chief Minister Adityanath.
Rajbhar represents the Zahoorabad assembly constituency in Ghazipur district, while Anil Kumar is an MLA from Purkazi (SC) in Muzaffarnagar. Sunil Kumar Sharma serves as the BJP MLA from the Sahibabad assembly constituency in Ghaziabad district, and Dara Singh Chauhan is a member of the UP Legislative Council.
UP Cabinet’s Four New Ministers: A Little Background
Sunil Kumar Sharma: Sharma hails from Sahibabad in Ghaziabad district, and serves as the BJP MLA there. He entered the political arena as a Member of the fifteenth UP Legislative Assembly in 2007, marking his debut in public service. During his tenure from 2010 to 2012, he contributed as a member of the Joint Committee on Women and Child Development. Sharma was re-elected in 2017 for his second term, and secured victory in the Sahibabad seat by an impressive margin in both the 2017 and 2022 UP elections.
OP Rajbhar: Rajbhar leads the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) and previously served as a cabinet minister in the Uttar Pradesh government. Additionally, he represents the Zahoorabad constituency in Ghazipur as an MLA.
Dara Singh Chauhan: Before joining the BJP ahead of the 2017 UP Assembly Polls, Chauhan was originally affiliated with the Bahujan Samaj Party. Subsequently, he joined the SP ahead of the 2022 UP polls, only to return to the BJP later on. Representing the Nonia community, a backward caste in eastern UP, Chauhan secured victory as an MLA from Ghosi under the SP banner in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. Notably, he served as a minister in the first Yogi government from 2017 to 2022.
Anil Kumar: Kumar is an RLD MLA who represents Purkazi in Muzaffarnagar district. He has been a three-time Member of the Legislative Assembly.
This marks the first Cabinet expansion during Adityanath’s second term as Chief Minister and is viewed as a strategic move by the BJP to strengthen its position across various regions of the state in preparation for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls. Additionally, the inclusion of the Rashtriya Lok Dal and the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party into the ruling NDA adds further political dynamics to the landscape, reported PTI.