UP: Yogi Adityanath and his cabinet of ministers sworn-in

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], Mar. 19 (ANI): Following the swearing-in of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) firebrand leader Yogi Adityanath as the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, his cavalry of ministers took the oath of office and secrecy. The ceremony, held in the state capital, saw the swearing-in of 21 cabinet ministers, nine Ministers of State (MoS) with Independent Charge and 13 MoS. Dinesh Sharma and Keshav Prasad Maurya were sworn-in as the deputy chief ministers of the state. Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh team comprises Nand Gopal Gupta Nandi, Siddharth Nath Singh, Mukut Bihari Verma and Ashutosh Tandon as cabinet ministers. Chetan Chauhan, Shrikant Sharma, Rajendra Pratap Singh, Om Prakash Rajbhar, Brajesh Pathak and Laxmi Narayan Chaudhary were also sworn-in as cabinet ministers. Other cabinet ministers include Dara Singh Chauhan, Dharmpal Singh, S P Singh Baghel Surya Pratap Shahi,Suresh Khanna, Satish Mahana, Rajesh Agarwal and Rita Bahuguna Joshi. The positions of MoS with Independent Charge were taken over by Anil Rajbhar, Swati Singh, Swatantra Dev Singh, Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary and Dharam Singh Saini. Suresh Rana, Upendra Tiwari, Mahendra Singh and Anupama Jaiswal were also handed over the charge of MoS with Independent Charge. The oath as Ministers of State (MoS) was taken by Mannu Kori, Sandeep Singh, Suresh Pasi, Neelkanth Tiwari, Girish Chandra Yadav, Baldev Aulakh, Jai Kumar Singh Jacky, Atul Garg, Ranvendra Pratap Singh, Gulab Devi, Jai Prakash Nishad and Archana Pandey. Former cricketer Mohsin Raza was also sworn-in as Minister of State. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also there to attend the swearing-in ceremony. Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav also witnessed the same. Yogi Adityanath, a five-time Lok Sabha MP from Gorakhpur, was unanimously elected the BJP Legislature Party leader at a meeting of the newly-elected MLAs in Lucknow last evening. He, later, met the Governor and staked claim to form the government in the state. Senior party leader and Union Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu, who was the central observer at the Legislature Party meeting, said it was a watershed moment for the BJP and it has become a common man's party. He said, the mandate is for development, and against corruption and black money. In the recently held polls in the state, BJP had bagged 312 seats, and its allies 13, taking the alliance's tally to 325 in the 403-member Assembly. (ANI)