New Delhi (21.03.2022): Ahead of the oath of the BJP Government in UP scheduled to be held on 25 March a list of probable ministers is doing rounds on various social media platforms however it is still in the process of being finalized by the top brass of the BJP. There are a few names that would certainly make it to the list but some names appear doubtful as well.

Baby Rani Maurya in the list of cabinet ministers also seems doubtful. She is a former governor and was brought to the organization with a specific purpose. First-time MLA from Kannauj Aseem Arun as Deputy CM raises doubt though is said to be among the probable for ministerial-berth. 

In his first term, Yogi Adityanath was considered to have reservations on the name of former top bureaucrat Arvind Kumar Sharma but in his second term he is expected to recognize his hard work and honor the Centre's choice yet his name as one of the Dy CMs is doing round in the corridors again. Aparna Yadav as minister of state will be killing her utility and is unlikely to be inducted in the ministry. Aparna and RPN Singh are bets for 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Keshav Prasad Maurya in the cabinet and not a Dy CM also defies logic. Either he is Dy CM or he will be out of the cabinet, nothing in between. The name of Pankaj Singh in the cabinet can be a wish of the people but if it becomes the wish of the leadership is highly doubtful. The BJP leadership is working on the list with 2024 Lok Sabha elections in mind besides SBSP leaders Om Prakash Rajbhar, one of the allies of the SP, meeting Amit Shah in Delhi in the presence of J P Nadda and Sunil Bansal with plans to join NDA. It may be an intelligent guess but the way BJP works and if the list is still with the PM, getting it leaked is impossible as people leaking it will be tracked easily. So let’s wait for the truth to unravel!

The list of the council of ministers doing rounds on social media reads as follows:

Chief Minister- Yogi Adityanath

Deputy CM- Swatantra Dev Singh, Arvind Kumar Sharma & Aseem Arun

Speaker- Suresh Khanna

Cabinet Ministers- Keshav Prasad Maurya, Bijesh Pathak, Dr Mahendra Singh, Satish Mahana, Baby Rani Maurya, Dr Dharampal Singh, Jitin Prasad, Srikant Sharma, Dayashankar Singh, Siddharthnath Singh, Nand Gopal Nandi, Surya Pratap Sahi, Rampal Verma, Ashutosh Tandon, Mohsin Raza, Anil Rajbhar, Pankaj Singh, Ramapati Shastri, Rajeshwar Singh, Anjula Mahaur, Pratibha Shukla, Dharampal Lodi, Bhupendra Chaudhary, Sanjay Nishad and Ashish Patel.

Minister of State (IC)- Aditi Singh, Tejpal Nagar, Virendra Singh, Lakshmi Narayan Chaudhary, Rajesh Chaudhary, Yogesh Dhama, GS Dharmesh, Ajeet Pal Tyagi, Brijesh Singh, Sandeep Singh, Mahesh Trivedi, Satish Chand Sharma.

Minister of State- Aparna Yadav, Rajeev Singh, Amit Agrawal, Sanjay Sharma, Ravindra Jaiswal, Dinesh Khateek, Suresh Pasi, Fatah Bahadur Singh, Jai Pratap Nishad, Atul Garg, and Ramratan Kushwaha.

What raises doubts over the authenticity of the 'complete list" of the council of ministers? 

One wonders that even 'so-called Media-Mughals' failed miserably in guessing the name of Vijay Rupani's successor in Gujarat; early morning oath of Ajit Pawar as Maharashtra CM, and the list of several such surprising occasions goes on, who else could have dug out the complete list of ministers in the Yogi 2.0 Govt well in advance? 

Yet, the smartly drafted list certainly gives a glimpse of the probable ones despite the fact that 'unpredictability' and 'elements of surprise' still remain the hallmark of the Modi-Shah regime.