Lucknow: At Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's swearing-in ceremony, 52 MLAs also took oath as ministers with 32 of them being new faces. Three veteran state politicians -- Laxmi Narayan Choudhary, Surya Pratap Shahi, and Gulabo Devi -- have also got berths in the Yogi cabinet.
Laxmi Narayan Choudhary: Laxmi Narayan Choudhary, 71, is the oldest minister in Yogi Sarkar 2.0. Chaudhary Laxmi Narayan stepped into the Legislative Assembly for the first time in 1985. He had then defeated Kishori Shyam of BJP from Chata on Lok Dal ticket. He fought the 1989 election on Janata Dal ticket and lost to BJP's Kishori Shyam. In the 1993 elections, he fought on Janata Dal ticket from Gokul and had to face defeat again. Later, he joined the Congress in 1996 and became an MLA for the second time from Chata.
But in the 2002 elections, contesting on the ticket of All India Democratic Congress, he lost the election to Tejpal Singh of RLD. In 2007, he again became MLA for the third time on a BSP ticket from Chata. After this, he entered the field as a BSP candidate in 2012 but had to face defeat. However, before the 2017 polls, he had switched from BSP to BJP, winning both 2017 and 2022 polls on BJP tickets. Chaudhary has been a cabinet minister in the past in 1996, 2004, and 2017.
Surya Pratap Shahi: Surya Pratap Shahi was born in 1952 in Pakaha village of Pathardeva in Deoria district. He did his LLB from BHU after graduating from BRD PG College. Surya Pratap's political journey started right from his student days. Shahi's uncle Ravindra Kishore Shahi was the state president of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh and a minister in the Uttar Pradesh government from 1977 to 1979. Surya was elected MLA from Kasaya for the first time in 1985. After that, he won elections in 1991 and 1996.
He held the post of Minister of State for Home, Health Minister, and Excise Minister in the state government. Shahi became the state vice-president of the BJP twice and the state president of the party in 2011. In 2012, he lost the election from the Pathardeva seat. However, after winning the elections in 2017, he was made the Minister of Agriculture, Agriculture Education, and Agricultural Research in the state government. This time Yogi Adityanath has again shown confidence in him.
Gulabo Devi: Sixty-six-year-old Gulabo Devi is the oldest woman minister in the Yogi cabinet. Gulabo Devi joined the BJP in 1991 and contested the assembly elections and became an MLA by winning the election from Chandausi seat of Sambhal district. She was re-elected MLA in 1996 and was made Minister of State for the first time in Kalyan Singh's government. Devi has been elected MLA from the seat 5 times and in 2017 she was made a minister of state in the Yogi cabinet.
Also read: Yogi Adityanath's swearing-in: Around 50 ministers to take oath along with CM
