Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath is set to expand his cabinet to factor in caste and regional equations ahead of the 2027 Assembly elections, sources said.

Adityanath met governor Anandiben Patel at her official bungalow on Saturday evening, fuelling speculation of a possible cabinet expansion. Sources said the decision was taken to keep in good humour some Samajwadi Party MLAs who had defected to the BJP in 2024.

Those who are expected to get cabinet berths include Puja Pal from Allahabad West and Manoj Pandey from Unchahar. Both of them were elected as SP members and suspended from the party in 2025, a year after they crossed the floor to vote for the BJP candidates in the Rajya Sabha election. They had openly expressed their support for the BJP in 2024, but the SP remained silent at that time.

They have not yet been disqualified from the Assembly, apparently because SP chief Akhilesh Yadav didn’t appear much interested in punishing them and his party didn’t write to the Speaker to cancel their membership.

Other fresh faces include Krishna Paswan, the MLA from Kharga in Fatehpur district, and Bhupendra Chaudhary, an MLC and former state BJP president.

In the 403-member Uttar Pradesh Assembly, the maximum strength of the council of ministers can be 60. At present, six berths are vacant.

Asked about the possible expansion, Akhilesh said: “The law and order is completely out of control in the state. Anarchy is at its peak. Whatever the government
is doing is going against the people.”