Yogi Adityanath was on Friday sworn in as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh for a second consecutive term — the first CM to retain power in the state in last 37 years. Adityanath was sworn in by Governor Anandiban Patel at a grand event in Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in the presence of a crown of over 70,000 people. 

The gala event was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, along with over a dozen chief ministers of BJP-ruled states and of those as well where the BJP is a partner of ruling alliance.

Along with Adityanath, Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak took oath as the two deputy chief ministers of the state. The discussion over the state cabinet, especially deputy CM post, went on for days since Maurya was defeated from his seat, Sirathu.

Here is the list of Cabinet Ministers, Ministers of State and Ministers of State (Independent Charge) who took oath:

Cabinet Ministers

Surya Pratap Shahi, Suresh Kumar Khanna, Swatantra Dev Singh, Baby Rani Maurya, Laxmi Narayan Chaudhary, Jayveer Singh, Dharampal Singh, Nand Gopal Gupta, Bhupendra Singh Choudhary, Anil Rajbhar, Jitin Prasada, Rakesk Sachan, Arvind Kumar Sharma, Yogendra Upadhyay, Ashish Patel, Sanjay Nishad

Minister of State (Independent Charge)

Nitin Agrawal, Kapil Dev Agrawal, Ravindra Jaiswal, Sandeep Singh, Gulab Devi, Girish Chandra Yadav, Dharmveer Prajapati, Asim Arun, JPS Rathore, Dayashankar Singh, Narendra Kashyap, Dinesh Pratap Singh, Arun Kumar Saxena, Dayashankar Mishra ‘Dayalu’

Minister of State

Mayankeshwar Singh, Dinesh Khateek, Sanjeev Gond, Baldev Singh Olakh, Ajit Pal, Jaswant Saini, Ramkesh Nishad, Manohar Lal Mannu Kori, Sanjay Gangwar, Brijesh Singh, KP Singh, Suresh Rahi, Somendra Tomar, Anoop Pradhan ‘Valmiki’, Pratibha Shukla, Rakesh Rathore Guru, Rajni Sharma, Satish Sharma, Danish Azad Ansari, Vijay Laxmi Gautam

Adityanath scripted history in the Assembly polls, becoming the first CM to return to power in the state after completing a five-year term. And the BJP became the first party to retain power in UP since 1985. On Thursday, the BJP legislature party meeting, which confirmed Adityanath’s appointment, was also attended by newly elected legislators of the party’s two allies — Apna Dal (Sonelal) and Nishad Party.

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. The SP-RLD alliance, which was seen as a tough challenger, was left at a distant second with just 125 seats.

This time round, Adityanath’s appointment as the CM wasn’t much of a surprise. During the assembly poll campaign, BJP bigwigs hailed the success of Adityanath-Narendra Modi ‘double-engine’ government in the state over the past five years and the CM tweeted a telling picture of Modi placing a hand over his shoulders.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah even said Adityanath needed to be back as CM in 2022 if the party sought to return to power at the Centre in 2024. With the Bharatiya Janata Party return to power, the monk-politician has consolidated his place in the organisation.

Some observers predict an even bigger role for him the BJP in coming years, though Adityanath took pains in an address to the MLAs to thank Modi and Shah for their ‘guidance’ during his first term, when he had no administrative experience.