Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi amid likely expansion of the Uttar Pradesh Cabinet and reorganisation of the BJP’s state unit. The party may announce its new state president and district presidents soon, it is learnt.
The meeting, which lasted more than one hour, came a day after Adityanath met BJP national president JP Nadda in the national capital. This was also the CM’s first meeting with the Prime Minister after completion of the Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj.
Sources said that both the party’s reorganisation and Cabinet expansion would be done keeping in mind the 2027 Assembly elections and outcome of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh. Thus, Dalit and OBC leaders are likely to get prominent representation in both, it is learnt.
Having suffered a setback during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in UP, the party is deliberating carefully on various factors before taking a call on its new state chief and the Cabinet expansion. While the process of the selection of district presidents has been completed at the state level, the party is waiting for the final clearance from the central leadership, which will also take a call on the party’s next state chief, sources said.
“There will certainly be a focus on both Dalit and OBC faces considering the Lok Sabha election results, in which the Samajwadi Party (SP) gained with its PDA (Pichhda, Dalit and Alpsankhyak) formula. We are hoping that the Cabinet expansion will be balanced with representation of both Dalit and most backward classes. It might get representation from Ayodhya as well to highlight the party’s recent bypoll (from Milkipur Assembly seat) victory,” said a party leader.
He added, “But as far as organisation is concerned, we need a leader who, apart from caste combination, can take the party cadre along and coordinate well with the government.”
Since former state minister Jitin Prasada was elected to the Lok Sabha from Pilibhit last year, an important portfolio like the Public Works Department is with Adityanath and has not been given to any minister so far. Besides, former state minister Anoop Pradhan Valmiki was also elected as MP from Hathras.