Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday met Governor Anandiben Patel in Lucknow adding fuel to the buzz of a State Cabinet expansion in the coming days ahead of parliamentary polls.
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Mr. Adityanath’s visit to the Governor’s house assumes significance as he attended the crucial Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) meeting in New Delhi for the parliamentary polls a few hours earlier.
“The Chief Minister on Friday paid a courtesy visit to U.P. Governor Anandiben Patel at Raj Bhavan and gifted the ‘Rom Rom me Ram’ book,” reads the statement from the CM’s office.
The BJP said it is the prerogative of the Chief Minister to expand the Cabinet and it will be done accordingly. “It is natural for the Chief Minister to meet the Governor, who is the constitutional head of the State. The expansion of the Cabinet is the prerogative of the CM and it will be done accordingly,” said Manish Shukla, U.P. BJP spokesperson.
Even more than six months after the Ghosi bypoll outcome and nearly nine months since the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) led by Om Prakash Rajbhar and former MLA Dara Singh Chauhan joined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the expansion of U.P. Cabinet has not taken place despite repeated assertion by Mr. Rajbhar that both he and Mr. Chauhan will become Ministers in the State government.