The Bharatiya Janata Party won a decisive majority in the recently concluded Uttar Pradesh Assembly election. With 255 seats in its kitty, the Yogi Adityanath-led party was well past the required mark of 202 to win the right to lead the 403-seat assembly.
Added to the BJP’s tally were the MLAs of its allies —Apna Dal and Nishad Party — taking the total strength of the alliance to 273. With the BJP’s thumping win, Yogi Adityanath is set to return as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh for the second time as he takes oath on Friday, March 25.
Here’s what makes Yogi Adityanath’s return to power historic:
1. Yogi Adityanath has become the first chief minister of Uttar Pradesh to return to power after completing a full tenure of five years. Four chief ministers, however, have returned to power in Uttar Pradesh in the past but none of them was in the office for a full five-year term.
2. The last chief minister to win consecutive terms in Uttar Pradesh (undivided) was Narayan Dutt Tiwari in 1985. This makes Yogi Adityanath the first chief minister to retain power in 37 years.
3. Yogi Adityanath has also become the first chief minister from the BJP to retain power in Uttar Pradesh, and only the third chief minister in the state to complete the full tenure of five years.
4. The swearing-in of Yogi Adityanath and other ministers in his Cabinet will be held at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow at 4 pm on Friday.
5. As Yogi Adityanath takes oath today, 45-47 MLAs are likely to join his council of ministers on Friday.
6. Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union ministers Anurag Thakur, Piyush Goyal, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Narendra Singh Tomar, Dharmendra Pradhan, Narendra Singh Tomar, Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, Bhupendra Yadav, Mahendra Nath Pandeya, Hardeep Singh Puri and Smriti Irani are also likely to attend the event.
7. Yogi Adityanath has invited Opposition leaders Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav, and Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati to the oath-taking ceremony.
