Keshav Maurya and Brajesh Pathak were sworn in as Yogi Adityanath’s deputy chief ministers. Adityanath is the first chief minister in the last 37 years to return to power after completing a full term in the state.
Yogi Adityanath takes oath as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh for a second consecutive term. Screengrab/Youtube
Yogi Adityanath was sworn in as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh for the second time on Friday at a mega event held at Lucknow’s Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium.
Yogi Adityanath is the first chief minister in the last 37 years to return to power after completing a full term in the state. Adityanath on Thursday met Governor Anandiben Patel and staked a claim to form the government in the state after he was elected leader of the BJP legislative party.
Also read: Yogi Cabinet 2.0: Brajesh Pathak may bag deputy CM’s post; who else will become minister?
Keshav Maurya and Brajesh Pathak also took oath as deputy chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh. Maurya, who was a deputy chief minister during Adityanath’s first term as well, had lost the Sirathu constituency to Samajwadi Party’s Pallavi Patel by a margin of 7,337 votes. He will have to get elected in a bye-poll within six months.
The two deputies were among 52 ministers sworn in on Friday along with Yogi Adityanath for his second consecutive term as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.
Who all were present
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the chief guest at the event
Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and BJP national president JP Nadda were present
The team of the hit Hindi movie The Kashmir Files was present, including actor Anupam Kher and director Vivek Agnihotri.
Several Bollywood stars, including Akshay Kumar, Kangana Ranaut and Boney Kapoor were also in attendance
Several stalwarts from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh attended the event
Chief ministers from BJP ruled states including Madhya Pradesh’s Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Haryana’s ML Khattar, Arunachal Pradesh’s Pema Khandu, Manipur’s Biren Singh, Himachal Pradesh’s Jairam Thakur, Tripura’s Biplab Deb, Assam’s Himanta Biswa Sarma, Karnataka’s Basavaraj Bommai, Gujarat’s Bhupendra Patel and Uttarakhand’s Pushkar Singh Dhami. Pramod Sawant, who will take oath as the chief minister of Goa on 28 March, was present.
Tarakeswar Singh, deputy chief minister of Bihar, Renu Devi, deputy chief minister of Bihar, Y Patton, deputy chief minister of Nagaland, Chowna Mein, deputy chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh and Jishnu Dev Varma, deputy chief minister Tripura were present
Some of the country’s top industrialists attended the swearing-in. The list includes, N Chandrasekaran (Tata Group), Mukesh Ambani (Reliance Group), Kumar Mangalam Birla (Aditya Birla Group), Gautam Adani (Adani Group), Anand Mahindra (Mahindra Group), Darshan Hira Nandani (Hiranandani Group), Yusuf Ali (Lulu Group), Sudhir Mehta (Torrent Group), Sanjeev Goenka (Goenka Group) and Abhinand Lodha (Lodha Group)
About 500 special guests from Prayagraj were invited. This includes about 400 BJP office-bearers and workers
Saints of Prayagraj, including Mahant Hari Giri Maharaj, general secretary of Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad, Yamuna Puri Maharaj, secretary of Mahanirvani Akhara, Shri Math Baghambri Gaddi and Mahant Balveer Giri of Bade Hanuman Mandir, were present.
The representatives of all the 13 Akhadas were present.
Former BHU vice-chancellor Professor GC Tripathi was present
Nearly 2,500 BJP workers hailing from other states who came to Uttar Pradesh for the Assembly election joined in the celebration
Besides sages and saints social workers, prominent leaders, writers, litterateurs, doctors, engineers also attended the event
Who gave it a miss
Samajwadi Party president chief Akhilesh Yadav and Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Chaudhary, who fought the polls as allies, did not attend the event although they were invited.
Venue
The venue has the capacity to accommodate 50,000 people. The stage for the VIPs was prepared in the northern end of the stadium. A small area right before the main stage was allocated to the media. While four pitches of the cricket stadium were barricaded, seating arrangements were made on the entire ground. And the underpasses of Shaheed Path were also painted.
The grand stage was adorned with posters with slogans that read ‘New UP of New India (Naye Bharat ka Naya UP).
More than 150 vertical gardens and over 5,000 flower pots were installed at the Shaheed Path that leads to the stadium. The 16-km stretch from the Amuasi Airport was spruced up. The streetlights were fixed and colourful LED strips were put in place. Cut-outs of Adityanath and posters of BJP leaders have been installed across the city.
Security
Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar said, “Close to 8000 personnel of the Uttar Pradesh Police, Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) along with specialised units like the Special Task Force (STF) and the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) were deployed.”
“The access to the venue was strictly regulated with ATS commandos manning all sensitive spots. Each visitor was screened before being allowed to enter the venue. Door frame metal detectors and hand held metal detectors were set up at every entry point,” he said.
Police installed CCTV cameras in and around the venue. The feed from the CCTV cameras was monitored live at the control room under the supervision of senior officials. Drones were kept on standby, said Kumar.
According to officials, a three-layer security was put in place at the venue.
Traffic
The Lucknow police commissionerate had issued a detailed traffic diversion plan for the entire day. It had also launched a helpline for people stuck in the traffic.
Ahead of the event, Lucknow Traffic Police on Thursday issued a traffic diversion plan, which will be in effect till 10 pm on Friday.
“All vehicles except the attendee vehicles will be diverted to other routes in the city. Traffic from Ayodhya to Barabanki would be diverted to Chinhut circle,” stated an official release by Lucknow Traffic Police. Traffic from the city to Bareilly will be diverted towards Hazrat Ganj circle where they can take an exit from the jail road.
All civil vehicles including public transport would be completely restricted around the stadium. Separate route diversion and parking spaces have been allotted by the officials so as to keep the traffic in check.
In Lucknow, all the crossings will be decorated with flowers and lights. The stretch from the airport to the stadium and from the stadium to BJP state headquarters will also be decorated and illuminated.
Puja
Ahead of the swearing-in ceremony of the head priest of Gorakhnath Math in Gorakhpur performed a special ‘Puja’ on Friday. A special “Aarti” was also performed by the head priest Yogi Kamal Nath in the temple.
BJP supporters also held special prayers in temples across the state on Friday.
BJP’s State General Secretary Govind Narayan Shukla told PTI that the workers have come out for the swearing-in ceremony after performing prayers and havan in temples across the state between 8 and 9 am.
According to the news received from Varanasi, before attending the swearing-in ceremony of Yogi Adityanath government, BJP office-bearers and workers in Varanasi also prayed in various temples and sought blessings for the government.
Before leaving for Lucknow at the swearing-in ceremony, Mahesh Chandra Srivastava, the president of Kashi region, offered prayers at the Mahavir temple in Parade Kothi, Varanasi and sought blessings for the Yogi government.
The officials of Namami Gange performed aarti at the Ganga gate of Kashi Vishwanath Dham by anointing Mother Ganga with milk along with the picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Yogi Adityanath.
Rajesh Shukla, convener of Namami Gange said that we prayed for the best future of the state under the leadership of Adityanath by performing aarti of Mother Ganga.
In the state capital BJP workers offered special prayers at prominent Mankameshwar Temple, Hanuman Setu Temple, Buddheshwar Mahadev Temple, Shanidev Temple, Bhoothnath Temple in the morning.
With inputs from agencies
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