Uttar Pradesh: Journalist shot dead in Sitapur; investigation underway
A journalist working for a reputed Hindi daily was shot dead by criminals in Sitapur on Saturday afternoon.
The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh is expected to reshuffle its state ministry to strengthen its caste equation and counter the Samajwadi Party’s PDA (Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) strategy ahead of the 2027 assembly elections.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is in Delhi on Saturday and is expected to meet senior party leaders to discuss the issue. This will be the second expansion of the Yogi 2.0 government, which came to power in March 2022.
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A senior party leader indicated on Saturday that both the state BJP organization and the council of ministers would undergo changes. “The reshuffle could take place around Holi if the party high command approves,” the leader said.
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The leader further stated that the BJP would appoint a new state president, and some leaders from the party organization might be inducted into the ministry, while certain ministers could be moved to organizational roles.
“It is certain that most backward classes and Dalits will get maximum representation in the reshuffle to counter the Samajwadi Party’s PDA formula,” the leader claimed.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the SP secured 37 seats using this strategy, while the BJP suffered a setback, winning only 33 out of 80 seats—down from 62 in 2019.
Currently, the UP Council of Ministers has 54 members, against the permissible 60. It consists of 21 Cabinet ministers, 14 ministers of state (independent charge), and 19 ministers of state.
The caste composition includes 23 general category ministers, 22 from Other Backward Classes (OBCs), and nine from the Scheduled Caste (SC) community.
Present UP BJP President Bhupendra Singh Choudhary, a Jat leader, is likely to get a cabinet berth. Speculation is rife that rebel SP MLAs, including Manoj Kumar Pandey and Puja Pal, may also be inducted into the council of ministers.
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