Yogi Sarkar 2.0: Shrikant Sharma to Siddharth Nath Singh, heavyweights who failed to make the cut in new UP cabinet

Gorakhpur MLA Yogi Adityanath was sworn in as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh for the second consecutive term yesterday amid much fanfare. Several prominent personalities including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP’s entire top leadership, chief ministers of NDA-ruled states graced the occasion marking the beginning of another five-year term of the saffron party. However, the day also brought gloom for some prominent faces who were either dropped from the cabinet or were expected to make it to the final list but could not. Over two dozen MLAs who were ministers in the previous government failed to bag a cabinet berth this time.

Deputy chief minister in the previous Yogi regime, Dinesh Sharma, failed to retain his berth as he was replaced by his colleague Brajesh Pathak, another Brahmin face, who shifted to the BJP from BSP six years ago. Power minister in the previous BJP government, Shrikant Sharma, who won the polls from Mathura by a margin of over one lakh votes, was also dropped from the cabinet.

Another casualty was Siddharth Nath Singh. He was the minister of Investment, MSME and Export in the previous BJP regime. The name of Satish Mahana, who headed the industry department in the previous BJP government and was elected from Maharajpur in Kanpur district, was also missing from the list.

Ramapati Shastri, who held the charge of the social welfare minister and is a BJP MLA from Mankapur in Gonda district, too was left out. Mohsin Raza, who was the lone Muslim minister in the previous state government, was replaced by Danish Azad Ansari.

Among the leaders who failed to get a ministerial berth this time were Jai Prakash Nishad, Ram Naresh Agnihotri, Ashutosh Tandon, Jai Pratap Singh, Neelkanth Tiwari, Ramapati Shastri and Mahendra Singh. While many ministers lost in the polls, one who made it to the cabinet despite losing the poll is Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.

Former Ministers Mukut Bihari Verma and Swati Singh were not fielded by the BJP in the just-concluded Assembly polls. Swami Prasad Maurya, Dharam Singh Saini and Dara Singh Chauhan, who were ministers in the previous BJP government, had quit the BJP just ahead of the Assembly polls and contested from the Opposition Samajwadi Party.