Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath on Wednesday announced the names of his Cabinet ministers. While he retained the crucial state Home Ministry portfolio for himself, deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma were assigned the Public Works Department and Higher Education Ministry.
Maurya, who is the Uttar Pradesh BJP vice president, was also given the task of handling the departments of food processing, entertainment tax and public enterprises. He was believed to have been the front-runner for the chief minister’s post before BJP’s announcement and had later said he had “no issues with Adityanath” being chosen for the post.
The other Uttar Pradesh Cabinet ministers are as follows:
- Child Development Ministry: Rita Bahugana Joshi
- Agriculture Ministry: Pratap Shahi
- Power Ministry: Shrikant Sharma
- Finance Ministry: Rajesh Aggarwal
- Sports and Youth Development Ministry: Chetan Chauhan
- Women’s Development Ministry: Swati Singh
- Parliamentary Affairs Ministry: Suresh Khanna
- Minority Affairs, Science and Electronics ministries: Mohsin Raza
Sidharthnath Singh, who has been given the task of handling anti-Romeo squads, said they aimed to make women feel safe and prevent untoward incidents. “We have been strictly asked to not harass any innocents,” he added.
The anti-Romeo squad was part of the BJP’s election manifesto. It refers back to the rumours of “love jihad” that the party had highlighted during its campaign for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The party had suggested that young Muslim men were being trained to court Hindu women to convert them to follow Islam.
On slaughterhouses, the minister gave his assurance that licensed ones will be allowed to function. “There should be no confusion over this,” he added. Singh’s comment came after three meat shops were set ablaze allegedly by a mob in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh.
The UP chief minister has long campaigned against the meat industry as part of his hardline Hindutva politics. This is evident in his multiple orders to the Uttar Pradesh Police to be strict on cattle transporters and slaughterhouses soon after the government was sworn in on March 15.
Adityanath took the oath to office on Sunday after the Bharatiya Janata Party won a whopping 325 seats along with its allies in the 403-member state Assembly. The 44-year-old, who is known for kicking up controversies with his strong Hindutva views, tried to allay fears about his stand in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday and stuck to the development agenda. He promised to deliver a state free of corruption and riots and also vowed to work for all sections of the society and create “a new structure of progress”.
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