Narendra Modi cabinet: UP, Maharashtra get lion's share

NEW DELHI: The composition of Narendra Modi’s ministry, which though is leaner than the ones preceded it, makes it clear that the BJP’s political expansion and upcoming assembly elections got considerable weight while picking the ministers.

Maharashtra, which is going to polls this year, has half a dozen ministers in Modi’s government. Five of them are from the BJP with former Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde and former party President Nitin Gadkari getting Cabinet ranks.

Piyush Goel and Prakash Javadekar were sworn in as ministers of state with independent charge, while Raosaheb Danve is a minister of state. Anant Geete of the Shiv Sena has also been made a Cabinet minister.

Assembly elections are due in Haryana too this year, and while the state has only 10 Lok Sabha members – seven of them are from the BJP this time – Modi has found space for two ministers. Rao Indrajeet Singh, MP from Gurgaon, was sworn in as a minister of state with independent charge, while Kishanpal Gujjar is a minister of state. Jitender Vir Singh, who won from Udhampur in Jammu and Kashmir, has been made a minister of state with independent charge. Elections to the state assembly are expected in in December. Uttar Pradesh – a state the BJP swept in the Lok Sabha polls and where the party is likely to make a strong bid in the 2017 assembly elections – got the largest representation in Modi’s ministry. While senior BJP leaders say assembly polls are not likely there ahead of schedule, the party’s performance in the Lok Sabha elections has to be shored up.

Modi, who represents Varanasi from the state in the Lok Sabha, has party President Rajnath Singh and Kalraj Mishra, as well as Uma Bharati and Maneka Gandhi in Cabinet ranks.

Santosh Gangwar and General (retired) VK Singh have been made ministers of state with independent charge, while Sanjiv Baliyan and Manoj Sinha found space as ministers of state.

The 2014 Lok Sabha election has been a watershed one in India and for the BJP. Prime Minister Modi seems determined not to let go of his political momentum for the elections ahead.