Yogi 2.0: New Challenges
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2022-03-25 14:31:39
About the Author
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
Yogi Adityanath was sworn in as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh in a glittering ceremony at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow in the presence of the BJP top brass including Prime Minister Modi and a galaxy of eminent personalities from the business and entertainment world as well as the sant samaj. The stadium was packed to the brim. He created history by becoming the first incumbent to return to office after 37 years after leading the BJP to a stunning and overwhelming win in the recent elections. The BJP won 255 seats with 41.29% vote share which was nearly 3 percent more than what it got in 2017 although its seats went down substantially. But the way the party fought back anti-incumbency, defections and a huge charge by the Samajwadi Party-led alliance was remarkable.
That Yogi means business was evident in the way 24 ministers in the old cabinet were dropped (although the UP cabinet was reconstituted just months before the elections) and a 52-member team with 32 new faces took oath along with the chief minister. The delay in forming the government was mainly due to cabinet formation and the new cabinet has been formed keeping seniority, regional, caste and OBC factors in mind. Keshav Prasad Maurya has been reappointed as deputy chief minister along with Brajesh Pathak who was the law minister in the earlier cabinet. The new team comprises 16 cabinet ministers, 14 ministers of state with independent charge and 20 ministers of state apart from the two deputy chief ministers. Jitin Prasada, who joined the BJP from the Congress just a few months back, got a cabinet berth.
It is good that Yogi Adityanath has recognized that the big mandate from the people has brought new challenges. He said that while earlier the challenge was to turn kushasan (bad governance) into sushasan (good governance), now it is upon the government to strengthen sushasan even more. But he must also recognize that law and order is not the only problem facing UP, a large state that is poor and lags behind other states in all parameters. If the proclaimed "Naye Bharat ka Naya UP" is to emerge, the Yogi government will have to spend wisely on health, education and infrastructure (although a lot has been done on the infrastructure front) and attract industry to the state. Joblessness is at a record high. More than sushasan, Yogi 2.0 will have to focus creating jobs as the labarthi (welfare) policy cannot continue endlessly.
