Uttar Pradesh rewarded with eight ministers

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has rewarded his politically adopted state of Uttar Pradesh by drafting a maximum number of eight MPs into his council of ministers, but has refused to play favourites with six BJP-ruled states that have together added 90 to the BJP’s overall tally of 282 parliamentarians in Lok Sabha.

The PM has also sent a clear message to 28 allies that this time’s historic mandate in the Lok Sabha elections is for the BJP, inducting only five from among allies out of the 46 ministers sworn in on Monday evening despite strong lobbying for more berths by the Shiv Sena and others.

Rajnath Singh, the BJP president who decided to join the government, leads the pack of eight UP MPs taken into the council of ministers. BJP leaders said that Singh’s view has been taken into consideration to give adequate representation to different castes in his home state, which after Babri Mosque demolition consolidated in favour of Modi to elect 73 MPs (including two MPs of ally Apna Dal).

The two powerful forward castes in UP – Brahmin and Rajput -- have been given representation in Modi’s cabinet. Kalraj Mishra was brought into cabinet to fill the Brahmin slot which fell vacant after Murali Manohar Joshi was ignored in line with Modi’s decision to keep out elders.

Rajnath Singh along with Gen V K Singh belong to Rajput community while Manoj Sinha (bhumihar), Sanjeev Balyan (Jat) and Modi, Uma Bharti and Santosh Gangawar are from OBC category.

In another politically important state of Bihar, Modi inducted two from NDA partners – Lok Janshakti Party’s Ram Vilas Paswan and Rashtriya Lok Samata Party’s Upendra Kushwaha – to illustrate the importance Modi government gives to dalits and OBCs. The remaining two – Ravi Shankar Prasad (Kayastha) and Radha Mohan Singh (Rajput) are forward caste leaders of the BJP.

Contrary to Congress filling many in its Manmohan Singh cabinet from the states under their control, Team Modi appears to have inadequate representation to five BJP ruled states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Goa.

At various points, UPA government had 13 ministers from Maharastra and about six from Rajasthan.  
Surprisingly, Modi gave only one Minister of State (MoS) slot to MP Nihal Chand from Vasundhra Raje-led Rajasthan, which repeated its last December assembly election outcome to ensure that all the 25 Congress candidates, including their heavyweights like Sachin Pilot and C P Joshi, lost the polls.  One of the elected MPs said Raje had told them that they would be accommodated in the next round of cabinet expansion.

Similarly, Modi gave Madhya Pradesh (where BJP won 27 out of 29 seats) four ministers, three to his domicile state of Gujarat (where BJP won all 26 seats), and one each to Chhattisgarh (where BJP won 10 out of 11 seats) and Goa (BJP won both the seats).