Lucknow Mar 25 PTI Dinesh Sharma Shrikant Sharma and Siddharth Nath Singh are among the prominent faces who are missing from the UP government this time as new ministers took oath at a grand swearing-in ceremony here on Friday The oath ceremony was held at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium in the presence of PM Narendra Modi and top BJP leaders Dinesh Sharma who in the previous Yogi Adityanath government held the charge of the deputy CM has been replaced by Brajesh Pathak Dinesh Sharma is the member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council Shrikant Sharma and Siddharth Nath Singh also failed to make the cut Shrikant Sharma held the charge of the power minister in the previous BJP-led government while Siddharth Nath Singh held the MSME portfolio The name of Satish Mahana who headed the industry department in the previous BJP government and was elected from Maharajpur in Kanpur district was missing from the list of new ministers Ramapati Shastri a BJP MLA from Mankapur in Gonda district too was left out Earlier he held the charge of the social welfare minister With UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh taking oath as a cabinet minister the post of state party chief is likely to fall vacant and a new leader may be appointed to the position a senior leader said citing the one person one post principle Among the leaders who failed to get a ministerial berth this time were Jai Pratap Singh Ram Naresh Agnihotri Ashutosh Tandon Neelkanth Tiwari and Mahendra Singh Mohsin Raza who was the lone Muslim minister in the previous state government was replaced by Danish Azad Ansari Swami Prasad Maurya Dharam Singh Saini and Dara Singh Chauhan who were ministers in the previous BJP government had quit the BJP just ahead of the Assembly polls and contested from the Opposition Samajwadi Party Ministers Mukut Bihari Verma and Swati Singh were not given ticket by the BJP in the just-concluded Assembly polls PTI NAV RDK RDK

Lucknow Mar 25 PTI Brajesh Pathak who was appointed as a deputy chief minister of Uttar Pradesh on Friday has been projected as a prominent Brahmin face in the BJPBorn on June 25 1954 in Mallawan Hardoi Pathak was active in politics since his student days and the former president of Lucknow University Students UnionAfter quitting the Bahujan Samaj Party he joined the BJP in 2016 and was the law minister in the outgoing council of ministersPolitical analysts say Pathak was projected by the BJP as a prominent Brahmin face before the assembly election and by making him the deputy chief minister the party has given preference to BrahminsAt a time when leaders like Swami Prasad Maurya Dara Singh Chauhan and Dharam Singh Saini who came to the BJP from the BSP quit the party before the elections Pathak remained loyal to the saffron partyHe launched a fierce attack on the opposition Samajwadi Party after its chief Akhilesh Yadav called the BJP as an anti-Brahmin partyAnalysts say the deputy chief minister post is a return gift given to Pathak by the BJPKeshav Prasad Maurya is the other deputy chief ministerial of the state Pathak earned his Bachelor of Laws LLB degree from the Lucknow University He became active in student politics in Lucknow University and was elected vice-president of the students union in 1989 Subsequently he was elected as the president of the union in 1990Pathak was fielded by the Congress party in the 2002 assembly elections from Mallawan constituency in Hardoi but was defeated by a narrow margin of about 150 votesAbout two years later he left the Congress and joined the BSP In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections the BSP named him as its candidate from the Unnao parliamentary constituency and he wonAfter this BSP chief Mayawati sent him to the Rajya Sabha in 2009However when he was again declared as the BSP candidate from Unnao in the 2014 general elections he faced defeatHe then joined the BJP in 2016 and was nominated by the party from the Lucknow Central assembly constituency the following yearPathak won from the seat by defeating senior SP leader and former Uttar Pradesh minister Ravidas Mehrotra He was made the law minister in the Yogi Adityanath-led government on March 19 2017 PTI AR NAV RHL

Lucknow Mar 25 PTI Several prominent faces are missing from the Uttar Pradesh government this time as new ministers took oath at a grand swearing-in ceremony here on Friday The oath ceremony was held at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium in the presence of PM Narendra Modi and top BJP leaders Dinesh Sharma who in the previous Yogi Adityanath government held the charge of the deputy CM has been replaced by Brajesh Pathak Shrikant Sharma and Siddhartha Nath Singh also failed to make the cut The name of Satish Mahana who headed the industry department in the previous BJP government and was elected from Maharajpur in Kanpur district was missing from the list of new ministers Ramapati Shastri a BJP MLA from Mankapur in Gonda district too was left out Earlier he held the charge of the social welfare minister With UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh taking oath as a cabinet minister the post of state party chief is likely to fall vacant and a new leader may be appointed to the position a senior leader said citing the one person one post principle Among the leaders who failed to get a ministerial berth this time were Jai Pratap Singh Ram Naresh Agnihotri Ashutosh Tandon Neelkanth Tiwari and Mahendra Singh Mohsin Raza who was the lone Muslim minister in the previous state government was replaced by Danish Azad Ansari Swami Prasad Maurya Dharam Singh Saini and Dara Singh Chauhan who were ministers in the previous BJP government had quit the BJP just ahead of the Assembly polls and contested from the Opposition Samajwadi Party Ministers Mukut Bihari Verma and Swati Singh were not given ticket by the BJP in the just-concluded Assembly polls PTI NAV RDK

Chandigarh (Punjab) [India], January 18 (ANI): Ahead of Assembly polls, Former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh's newly-formed political party Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) received a shot in the arm after senior Congress leader and two-time MLA from Garhshankar Luv Kumar Goldy along with his supporters joined the party on Monday.

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], January 14 (ANI): The Uttar Pradesh police has registered an FIR against the Samajwadi Party for violating the election Model Code of Conduct and COVID-19 protocols on Friday.

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], January 14 (ANI): Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Friday, referring to the spate of resignations that took place in the Yogi Adityanath government, took a jibe at the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and said that he does not know how to play cricket and has dropped a catch.

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], January 14 (ANI): Reacting to the spate of resignations in the Bharatiya Janata Party, including three ministers, ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, state Minister Sidharth Nath Singh alleged that some of the MLAs had left for their "personal benefits" and are involved in misguiding OBCs and Dalits in the state.

Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh) [India], January 14 (ANI): Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday had 'khichdi' at the residence of a Dalit party worker, Amrit Lal Bharti on the occasion of Makar Sankranti.

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], January 14 (ANI): Former Uttar Pradesh Ministers Swami Prasad Maurya and Dharam Singh Saini, who resigned this week from the Yogi Adityanath government and the ruling BJP ahead of Assembly polls, have joined the Samajwadi Party (SP) on Friday in presence of the party chief Akhilesh Yadav.

New Delhi [India], January 14 (ANI): The pre-poll churning in Uttar Pradesh has seen the BJP getting a jolt with six MLAs resigning from the party and three ministers quitting amid signals that they will join Samajwadi Party. In response to this, Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Thursday said that resignations are not a big deal in Uttar Pradesh.