New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will be in Delhi today. He will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi at around 5 pm. According to reports, he would discuss the formation of a new cabinet with the PM.

Later in the evening, CM Yogi is also scheduled to meet Vice President M Venkaiah, Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP national president JP Nadda Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and national general secretary of the BJP, BL Santosh.
 
The date of the swearing-in ceremony of Yogi Adityanath as Chief Minister is yet to be determined. Adityanath will be accompanied to Delhi by minister Sunil Bansal, BJP state president Swatantra Dev Singh, and UP in-charge Radha Mohan Singh. According to sources, the BJP is mulling bringing in a slew of fresh faces to the UP cabinet. New names may also arise in the Deputy CM position.

As per reports, the BJP is thinking of including Pankaj Singh in the cabinet. Pankaj is the son of Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, has won by more than 1.81 lakh votes.
 
The BJP leadership has prepared a list of candidates to swear in as Yogi's deputy, as well as a list of ministers. There is widespread conjecture that the list was prioritised based on merit, caste, and regional balance.

The BJP leadership wishes to maintain caste and regional balance in the government. However, the final decision on this list will be made by the central leadership. Baby Rani Maurya, Brijesh Pathak, BJP state chief Swatantra Dev Singh, and former DCM Keshav Prasad Maurya are among the candidates for Deputy Chief Minister.

Swatantra Dev worked as the Transport Minister in the previous Yogi government. Keshav Prasad Maurya, who lost the election from the Sirathu assembly seat, has a good chance of becoming DCM again because of his popularity among the OBC community. Baby Rani Maurya has been the governor of Uttarakhand and a leader of the Jatav community in UP. To strike the caste balance, Brijesh Pathak, a Brahmin who was a law minister in the previous government, may get a chance again.

Swatantra Dev Singh, a Kurmi leader, was instrumental in the BJP's triumph in the state. Pathak, who was elected from Lucknow Cantt, has been rumoured to be the Yogi cabinet's Deputy Chief Minister to overcome the Brahmin problem.

Ex-cops Aseem Arun and Rajeshwar Singh may be considered for cabinet positions. Rajeshwar Singh worked as an ED officer with the Uttar Pradesh Police. Aseem Arun is the Police Commissioner of Kanpur and was elected from Kannauj Sadar. 

The BJP leaders have to provide space for the allies, Apna Dal and Nishad Party. Many saffron party leaders have won by big margins and the leadership may be pressured to include a few of them in the cabinet.

Ninth time MLA, Suresh Khanna from Shahjahanpur, can also be made a minister. The swearing-in of the Yogi Adityanath government can be held on March 15 or 21.

In the previous government, Adityanath kept around 36 ministries including Home, Housing, Town and country planning department, Revenue, Food and Civil Supplies, Food Security and drug administration, Economics and statistics, Mines and Minerals, Vigilance, Personnel and appointment.

His first ministry had two deputy chief ministers, MLCs Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dr Dinesh Sharma were DCMs. There were 24 cabinets, 9 were state ministers with Independent charge and 27 were State ministers.
Yogi's first cabinet composed Six  Brahmins,10 OBCs, two Thakurs, three were from the Dalit community and two were Vaishyas.