Bharatiya Janata Party’s Yogi Adityanath took oath as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh for the second consecutive term on Friday. His 52-member new team was also sworn-in during the ceremony that was held at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow and attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and BJP national president JP Nadda. 

Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak also took oath as the Deputy Chief Ministers of the state.  

Among the ministers named in the cabinet during the event was young leader Danish Azad Ansar. The 32-year-old from eastern Ballia replaced Mohsin Raza as the lone Muslim face in the Yogi Adityanath government.

Who is Danish Azad Ansari?

Danish Azad Ansari did his schooling at Ballia’s Holy Cross School. He studied B.Com and then Master of Quality Management and Master of Public Administration from Lucknow University and has been associated with Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, BJP’s student wing, since then. 

He was eventually made a member of the Fakhruddin Ali Ahmad Memorial Committee of the UP government.

The 32-year-old has also been a member of Uttar Pradesh’s Urdu language council and worked in BJP’s minority morcha to strengthen the party’s outreach towards the minority community.

In October 2021, Ansari was made the General Secretary of the minority front of the BJP. He is yet to contest an assembly election.

On Friday, he took oath as a minister of state, replacing Mohsin Raza, who served as the minister of state for minorities welfare in the previous Yogi Adityanath government, as the sole Muslim face in the government.