LUCKNOW: In a bid to blunt the PDA (backwards, Dalits, minorities) push of the Samajwadi Party in the run up to the next big battle, BJP on Sunday inducted six new ministers with three of them backwards and two Dalits.Two junior ministers who were promoted are also backwards while the sole upper caste face in the expansion is SP rebel MLA Manoj Pandey, a Brahmin.This was the second and probably the last expansion of the Yogi cabinet in its second term before the state goes to the polls early next year.Team Yogi now has maximum possible 60 members – 23 cabinet ministers, 16 ministers of state (independent charge) and 21 ministers of state.Governor Anandiben Patel administered the oath to former state BJP chief Bhupendra Chaudhary and Pandey as the cabinet ministers and to Kailash Rajput, Hansraj Vishwakarma, Krishna Paswan and Surendra Diler as the junior ministers.Chief minister Yogi Adityanath was present on the occasion.Besides, existing junior ministers Ajit Singh Pal and Somendra Tomar were given independent charge.Chaudhary and Vishwakarma are MLCs while the other four are members of the legislative assembly.Three of the newly inducted six ministers – Bhupendra Chaudhary, Hansraj Vishwakarma and Kailash Rajput — belong to OBC category in what is being seen as the BJP’s bid to make an outreach to the backwards to prick SP’s ‘PDA’ narrative that was seen as the reason for BJP’s tally slipping to 33 in Lok Sabha polls 2024 from 62 in 2019.Both promoted ministers, Tomar and Pal, too, are backwards. While Tomar belongs to Gujjar community, a strong votebank on certain West UP seats, Pal belongs to Pal community, having its presence mainly between Kanpur and Agra regions.
