After Bengal, BJP Preps For UP, Goes For Social Reset With Cabinet Reshuffle

Taking a cue from its successful West Bengal formula, the Bharatiya Janata Party is focusing on consolidating the women and the extremely backward vote banks for the Assembly polls next year. The party has just performed a social reset in the state — which sends the highest number of Lok Sabha members, giving representation to Brahmin, Jat, Gurjar, Lodh, Paswan and extremely backward caste groups in the state government.

The Yogi Adityanath government, in its perhaps last Cabinet reset before the Assembly polls, gave place to former BJP state president Bhupendra Chaudhury and Samajwadi Party rebel Manoj Pandey in the Council of Ministers. State ministers Ajit Pal Singh and Somendra Tomar were promoted to the post of minister of state with independent charge. Four new state ministers – Krishna Paswan, Surendra Diler, Hansraj Vishwakarma, and Kailash Rajput – were also sworn in.

With the Cabinet expansion, the Uttar Pradesh BJP has sought to mollify upset castes and turncoats and tried to strike a regional balance.

The Cabinet expansion was pending for a long time, giving rise to speculation that all was not well between Lucknow and Delhi. The party’s sources, however, denied any internal tussle. They attributed the delay to the party’s focus on the West Bengal and Assam elections.(UPDATED ON 10TH MAY 2026)