The first cabinet expansion on Wednesday of the second successive term of BJP-led government saw seven Members from Parliament from Uttar Pradesh being inducted into the Council of Ministers, apparently with an eye on state assembly elections due next year.
As many as 43 leaders from NDA took oath as Union Ministers at the swearing-in ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Besides Uttar Pradesh, assembly elections are due early next year in Goa, Manipur, Punjab and Uttarakhand and later in the year in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.
Except for Punjab, BJP is in power in all the states.
Pankaj Choudhary, BJP Lok Sabha MP from Maharajganj in Uttar Pradesh and serving his sixth term as MP, was sworn in as minister. BJP's ally Apna Dal leader Anupriya Patel, who was elected to the lower house for her second term from Mirzapur, also took an oath as minister. She had served earlier as Union Minister of State for Health in the first term of the Modi government.
BJP leader Satya Pal Singh Baghel, who represents Agra in Lok Sabha, took oath as Minister of State. He has served as a Cabinet Minister for Animal Husbandry, Fisheries and Minor Irrigation in the Uttar Pradesh government.
BJP Lok Sabha MP from Jalaun, Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma, who was sworn in as Union Minister of State, is serving his fifth term as MP. He was also an MLA in Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly. He has over three decades of public life.
BJP leader Kaushal Kishore, who took oath as Union Minister of State, is into his second term as an MP. He represents Mohanlalganj. He was earlier an MLA of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly and served as Minister of State in Uttar Pradesh Government. BJP leader BL Verma, a Rajya Sabha MP and BJP Lok Sabha MP from Kheri Ajay Kumar also took oath as Union Ministers of State.
Darshana Vikram Jardosh, Chauhan Devusinh and Munjapara Mahendrabhai were MPs from Gujarat sworn in as ministers of state.
From Uttarakhand, Ajay Bhatt is a first-time Lok Sabha MP for Nainital-Udhamsingh Nagar and took an oath as Union Minister of State. He was earlier MLA in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand Legislative Assemblies.
Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, a first-time Lok Sabha MP from Inner Manipur, was sworn in as the Union Minister of State today. Prior to his political career, he had a four-decade long career as a Geography Professor.
( With inputs from ANI )
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