Lucknow:, May 11 -- The long-awaited expansion of the council of ministers by chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday is a significant exercise aimed at recalibrating caste, regional, gender and organisational equations ahead of the crucial 2027 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.

The expansion was carried out without dropping any minister from the existing council, indicating the BJP leadership's effort to accommodate new social and political groups without disturbing the existing settings and triggering an avoidable discontent.

The Sunday's exercise, which was being talked about for months, is being viewed as a calculated move to work out political arithmetic and social chemistry at a time when the BJP is all set to intensify preparati...