Women Ministers Make Up For Barely Nine Percent Of The New Yogi Cabinet

 Yogi Adityanath took oath as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh after being re-elected to power by voters earlier this month. The oath-taking ceremony took place at Ekana Stadium in Lucknow where his new cabinet members were also introduced and sworn in. The 2022 Yogi cabinet consists of 52 ministers, of which only five are women.

Adityanath's oath ceremony was attended by many dignitaries including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Home Minister Amit Shah among other Union ministers and BJP workers. The new UP cabinet features 31 fresh faces, with 21 ministers retained from the old cabinet. The new state government will include two deputy Chief Ministers like the previous term, in the form of Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brijesh Pathak, who were both sworn in on March 25.

Who are the five women ministers who are part of Yogi Cabinet 2022:

Baby Rani Maurya

Image Credit: Daily Pioneer

Baby Rani Maurya is the former Governor of Uttarakhand who started her political career as a member of the Bhartiya Janata Party in the 90s. She also served as the first woman mayor of Agra in 1995. In 2018, she was appointed as the Governor of Uttarakhand and resigned from her post in 2021 before completing her five-year tenure. After this, she was appointed as the BJP National Vice President in 2021.

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Rajni Tiwari

MLA Rajni Tiwari took oath as a Minister of State in the UP government cabinet. Tiwari won the elections against SP candidate Asif Khan Babbu by a margin of reportedly 6873 votes from Shahabad constituency. The MLA maintained her winning streak by securing a seat in the state assembly for the fourth time in a row.

Gulab Devi

Pic Credit: livehindustan.com

Gulab Devi will be helming the rank of Minister of State with Independent Charge under the department of secondary education. Devi won against SP's Vimlesh Kumari from the reserved seat of Chandausi in the Sambhal district of Uttar Pradesh. She was appointed as the state Vice President of BJP in Uttar Pradesh from 2008-2012.

Pratibha Shukla

Pratibha Shukla registered her third win as a MLA in the UP Assembly elections 2022. Shukla won from the Akbarpur-Raniyan assembly seat against SP's Neeraj Singh. The MLA was associated with Bahujan Samaj Party earlier, however, she joined BJP in 2017 elections. Pratibha Shukla is the former member of Public Accounts Committee (2007-2009) and Joint Committee on Women and Child Development (2009-2012).

Vijay Laxmi Gautam

Vijay Laxmi Gautam emerged victorious from the Salempur Assembly seat. Gautam has earlier left BJP to join Samajwadi Party in 2017. However, she lost to the BJP candidate Kali Prasad during the 2017 elections. In 2022, she returned back to BJP and won against her political rivals.