Rajnath Singh will be the new Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. (Source: PTI)

After five days of drama and speculation, BJP is set to name Rajnath Singh as the new Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. The news was confirmed by a top BJP source who revealed that Dinesh Sharma and Siddharth Nath Singh were the other two leading contenders but the top leaders selected the Home Minister Rajnath Singh for the spot. The source also confirmed that Home Ministry which is currently being headed by Singh will be given to the current Finance and Defence Minister, Arun Jaitley. This decision will bring a completely new look to Narendra Modi’s cabinet as Piyush Goel who is currently the Minister of State with Independent Charge for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy and Mines will take charge of the Finance Ministry.

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So, after the latest developments, Arun Jaitley will be the Defence and Home Minister while Piyush Goel will be the new Finance Minister. According to the source, the decision was taken in a meeting on Wednesday night. Top BJP leaders are holding a Parliamentary meeting on Thursday morning and the official announcement will be made after that.

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If Rajnath Singh becomes the new Chief Minister, he will be the second Union Minister after Manohar Parrikar to leave the cabinet in less than a week. Parrikar left the charge of Defence Ministry to become the new Goa Chief Minister. Rajnath Singh’s closest competition for the Chief Minister spot in Uttar Pradesh was Siddharth Nath Singh who is one of the official spokespersons of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the grandson of former Prime Minister of India Lal Bahadur Shastri.

BJP got a historic mandate in the state this year as it won 325 seats on 11th March when the counting of votes was done. The Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance finished on the second spot with 54 seats while BSP managed to win only 19 seats. BJP has also formed the government in Manipur and Goa.