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 promoted to independent charge on Sunday.

This expansion comes ahead of the assembly elections, scheduled for early next year in the State.

In a swearing-in ceremony held at Jan Bhavan, former BJP State president Bhupendra Chaudhary and SP rebel Manoj Pandey were appointed as Cabinet Ministers. State Ministers Ajit Pal Singh and Somendra Tomar were elevated to the position of Minister of State with independent charge.

Four new State Ministers — Krishna Paswan, Surendra Diler, Hansraj Vishwakarma, and Kailash Rajput — were sworn in. Governor Anandiben Patel administered the oath to the newly appointed Ministers.

This marks the second expansion of the Yogi 2.0 ministry, following the first one in March 2024, which occurred two years after the government’s formation.

In that expansion, alliance partner and SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar, along with RLD’s Anil Kumar, Sunil Kumar Sharma, and Dara Singh Chauhan — who returned to the BJP from the SP — were inducted.

With a total strength of 403 members in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, the maximum size of the council of Ministers can be 60. Before this expansion, there were 54 Ministers, leaving six berths vacant.

Bhupendra Chaudhary, who took the oath 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 upon his induction.

Under his leadership, the BJP contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in the State. Chaudhary’s induction is perceived as an effort by the BJP to reach out to the Jat community in the politically crucial western UP.

Manoj Pandey, an SP rebel, who is now unattached in the UP Assembly, won the 2022 assembly polls from the Unchahar assembly seat in Raebareli district. A 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 promoted State Ministers, Somendra Tomar previously held the position of Minister of State for energy, while Ajit Pal Singh served as State Minister for science and technology.

Among the new State Ministers, Mr. Paswan, who belongs to the Pasi community (Dalit), is a four-time MLA representing the Khaga assembly seat in Fatehpur district. She has served as the Fatehpur district BJP president, former State vice president, and national secretary of the SC Morcha.

Mr. Diler, another new State Minister, belongs to the Valmiki (Dalit) community and is an MLA from Khair in Aligarh. Mr. Diler won a bypoll in 2024 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 a new State Minister, served as the BJP district president in Varanasi for a decade and was active in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election campaign. He is regarded as the BJP organisation’s face in the government.

Mr. Rajput represents the Tirwa constituency in Kannauj and has a long-standing political career. He first became an MLA in 1996 with the BJP, won again in 2007 from a BSP ticket, and later returned to the BJP, winning 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 the BJP candidate Subrata Pathak defeated Samajwadi Party’s Dimple Yadav by an 11,000-vote margin.

Following this expansion, Uttar Pradesh now has 23 Cabinet Ministers, 16 Ministers of State with independent charge, and 21 State Ministers.

According to the 91st Amendment Act 2003, the maximum number of Ministers, including the Chief Minister, cannot exceed 15 per cent of the total strength. Therefore, Uttar Pradesh can have a total of 60 Ministers.

Currently, the 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 rebel members from SP are unattached. Three seats - Duddhi, Ghosi, and Faridpur - remain vacant.