The new allies of the BJP were rewarded on Tuesday in the form of ministerial positions in the Yogi Adityanath government in a pre-election exercise to woo even the smallest sections of voters in Uttar Pradesh.

The four new ministers who took oath on Tuesday were Om Prakash Rajbhar, president of the Suheldeo Bharatiya Samaj Party, Anil Kumar of the Rashtriya Lok Dal and Dara Singh Chauhan and Sunil Kumar Sharma of the BJP. Their portfolios will be announced soon.

Rajbhar was a BJP ally in the 2017 Assembly elections and was the backward
classes welfare minister in the Adityanath government. He resigned from the ministry in 2019, accusing the Adityanath government of ignoring the welfare of the most backward and Dalit communities.

“It is one of the most corrupt governments,” he had said at the time and joined hands with Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party. However, he returned to the NDA last
year.

Rajbhar is an MLA from Zahoorabad in Ghazipur district.

The Rashtriya Lok Dal had deserted the INDIA bloc and joined the NDA last month, soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi awarded the Bharat Ratna to Chaudhary Charan Singh, the grandfather of RLD president Jayant Chaudhary.

Kumar is an MLA from Purkaji in Muzaffarnagar district.

Chauhan was elected an MLA on an SP ticket from Ghosi in Mau district in 2022 but he resigned last year and joined the BJP. However, he lost as a BJP candidate in the by-election to the SP’s Sudhakar Singh. Later, the BJP sent him to the Legislative Council.

Sharma is a BJP MLA from Sahibabad in Ghaziabad district.

According to BJP sources, ground reports suggest that the party needs to work for the Brahmin community and Sharma’s inclusion in the Adityanath government is a step towards it. There is a general perception that the chief minister cares more for his own Kshatriya caste and less for the Brahmins, who are considered the opinion-makers in rural Uttar Pradesh.

“According to a survey done by the state unit of the BJP, the victory margin of the party could be less than 10,000 votes in many parliamentary seats of the state in the current situation because of the disconnect of the sitting MPs with the voters. The party has to work hard to change this situation because there are on an average 20,000 floating votes and it can turn to any side at the eleventh hour,” said a BJP leader on the condition of anonymity.

After taking oath, Rajbhar said: “We have been appointed ministers to take the schemes of the government to the masses and ensure the victory of the NDA in the Lok Sabha elections.”

Adityanath wrote on X in Hindi: “I congratulate all the friends for taking oath as ministers in Uttar Pradesh. I hope that all of you will bring ‘Modi Ki Guarantee’ on the ground and play your role in the ‘development of UP’.”

The “Modi Ki Guarantee slogan has been coined by the BJP as an assurance that Modi would develop the country if voted to power for the third consecutive term.