Yogi Adityanath to take oath as Uttar Pradesh CM today

Lucknow: Yogi Adityanath will take oath today as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh for the second consecutive time at the Ekana cricket stadium in Lucknow.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP President JP Nadda are expected to participate in the swearing-in ceremony.

According to sources, around 85 thousand people will be attending the grand ceremony in Lucknow.

A grand stage has been set up and posters have been put with slogans that read 'New UP of New India (Naye Bharat ka Naya UP)'.

The BJP's legislative party elected Yogi Adityanath as its leader earlier in the day at a party meeting, following which the CM-designate met the Governor to stake claim to form the state's next government.

Invitations have been sent to chief ministers, Union ministers, ministers of other states, and industrialists. Yogi Adityanath personally called former UP chief ministers Mulayam Singh Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati and invited them. Among chief ministers of other BJP-ruled states, invites have been sent to Pushkar Singh Dhami and Basavaraj Bommai. Bihar CM Nitish Kumar is also expected to attend the ceremony.

Former chief ministers of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand - Raman Singh and Raghubar Das - have also been invited. Union Ministers Amit Shah, Anurag Thakur, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Narendra Singh Tomar, Dharmendra Pradhan, Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, Bhupendra Yadav, Mahendra Nath Pandey, Smriti Irani, Hardeep Singh Puri, Annapurna Yadav, and Shobha Karanjale are expected to attend the ceremony.

BJP won Uttar Pradesh assembly elections with a thumping majority, becoming the only party to retain power in the state in over 30 years.

According to reports, just like the previous term, there will be two deputy CMs. Moreover, the new cabinet may have around two dozen cabinet ministers, 12 Minister of state. Also, some cabinet ministers may also be given MoS status as an additional charge.