In the second expansion of the Yogi Adityanath 2.0 ministry, two cabinet ministers and four state ministers were inducted into the Uttar Pradesh government, while two state ministers were elevated to independent posts on Sunday.
The expansion comes ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for early next year in the state.
Former BJP state president Bhupendra Chaudhary and SP rebel Manoj Pandey were appointed as cabinet ministers in a swearing-in ceremony at Jan Bhavan. Ministers of state Ajit Pal Singh and Somendra Tomar have been elevated as ministers of state with independent charge.
Four new ministers of state — Krishna Paswan, Surendra Diler, Hansraj Vishwakarma and Kailash Rajput — were sworn in. Governor Anandiben Patel administered the oath to the newly appointed ministers.
This is the second expansion of the Yogi 2.0 service after the first expansion in March 2024, which happened two years after the formation of the government.
As part of this expansion, alliance partner and SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar was fielded along with RLD’s Anil Kumar, Sunil Kumar Sharma and Dara Singh Chauhan, who returned to the BJP from the SP.
With a total strength of 403 in the Uttar Pradesh assembly, the maximum number of members in the council of ministers can be 60. Before this expansion, there were 54 ministers, leaving six berths vacant.
Bhupendra Chaudhary, who was sworn in as a Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) and was part of Yogi’s first government, was retained after the party returned to power in 2022. However, he stepped down from his role as the UP BJP chief after his induction.
Under his leadership, the BJP contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in the state. Chaudhary’s induction is seen as an attempt by the BJP to reach out to the Jat community in politically crucial western UP.
Manoj Pandey, an SP rebel who is now unseated in the UP assembly, won the 2022 parliamentary polls from Unchahar assembly in Raebareli district. Three-time MLA Pandey, who hails from the Brahmin community, previously served as a minister in the Akhilesh Yadav government and voted for the BJP candidate in the last Rajya Sabha elections.
Among the ministers of state promoted, Somendra Tomar previously held the position of Minister of State for Power, while Ajit Pal Singh served as Minister of State for Science and Technology.
Among the new ministers of state is Mr. Paswan, who belongs to the Pasi (Dalit) community, a four-time MLA representing the Khaga assembly seat in Fatehpur district. She has served as Fatehpur BJP district president, former state vice president and national secretary of SC Morcha.
Mr. Diler, another new state minister, belongs to the Valmiki (Dalit) community and is the MLA from Khair in Aligarh. Mr. Diler won the 2024 bypoll after the previous seat holder, BJP’s Anup Valmiki, was elevated to the Lok Sabha.
Mr. Diler comes from a prominent political family; his grandfather Kishan Lal Diler was a six-time MLA and four-time MP, while his father Rajveer Singh Diler was a one-time MP and two-time MLA.
Mr. Vishwakarma, also the new minister of state, served for ten years as the district president of the BJP in Varanasi and was active in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election campaign. He is considered the face of the BJP organization in the government.
Mr. Rajput represents Tirwa constituency in Kannauj and has a long political career. He first became MLA in 1996 with BJP, won again in 2007 from BSP ticket and later returned to BJP and won in 2017 and 2022.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP secured a lead of 14,000 votes from Mr. Rajput’s constituency, where BJP candidate Subrata Pathak defeated Samajwadi Party’s Dimple Yadav by a margin of 11,000 votes.
After this expansion, Uttar Pradesh now has 23 Cabinet Ministers, 16 Ministers of State with independent charge and 21 Ministers of State.
According to the 91st Amendment Act of 2003, the maximum number of ministers, including the Chief Minister, cannot exceed 15 percent of the total number. Therefore, Uttar Pradesh can have a total of 60 ministers.
Currently, BJP has 257 MLAs, SP 102, Apna Dal 13, RLD 9, SBSP 6, Nishad Party 5, Jan-satta Dal Loktantrik 2, Cong-2 and BSP-1 in the 403-member assembly.
Three members of the SP rebels are unchained. Three seats – Duddhi, Ghosi and Faridpur – remain vacant.
Published – 10 May 2026 17:16 IST
