Shiv Sena’s protestations clouded an otherwise classical Cabinet expansion exercise on Sunday that balanced issues of regional and caste representation and contained a mix of technocrats and experienced administrators.
Probably realising that “minimum government and maximum governance” was only serving to overwork certain Ministers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi enlarged his Council of Ministers to a robust 66 members. Professionals and technocrats such as Jayant Sinha and Mahesh Sharma as well as credible leaders with proven administrative records such as Manohar Parrikar and Suresh Prabhu were inducted.
The BJP seemed to have thought through the Shiv Sena tangle given the alacrity with which Suresh Prabhu quit his former party and adopted the ruling dispensation. Prabhu’s induction was not suggested by the Sena, and more a reflection of the Prime Minister and the RSS’s faith in his administrative and professional acumen. The BJP knew in advance that the Sena will react badly to the manner in which Prabhu was being inducted. That is why his transition to the BJP was smoothly arranged as soon as the Sena started reacting on expected lines.
So, while the Sena continued to fume, celebrations had erupted in the respective houses of the leaders who were elevated to the Cabinet this afternoon. As Rajiv Pratap Rudy pointed out, the Cabinet now has Ministers from regions which were not represented earlier. The Council of Ministers now has JP Nadda from Himachal Pradesh, YS Chowdhary from Andhra Pradesh, Bandaru Dattatreya from Telangana and popular singer Babul Supriyo from West Bengal.
Supriyo’s anointment is, in fact, is a signal about the States where the BJP aspires to further its political advance. From Bihar, where elections are due next year, as many as three new Ministers were inducted – Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Giriraj Singh and Ram Kirpal Yadav. It is a clever mix of representatives from among the BJP’s traditional vote support base — Rajputs (a community to which Rudy belongs) and the Bhumihars (represented by Giriraj Singh) — as well as an attempt to reach out to the intermediary castes (Ram Kirpal Yadav). Besides reassuring the Bhumihars, the elevation of Giriraj Singh may also be an indication of the kind of campaign the BJP plans to run in the Bihar Assembly election.
Hindi heartland The Cabinet expansion also has message for the Dalits in the Hindi heartland and the northern States, where they have traditionally voted either for the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) or the Congress. From Uttar Pradesh, two Dalit and backward caste MPs — Ram Shankar Kathiria from Agra and Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti from Fatehpur — were inducted in the Council of Ministers. From Punjab, that has the highest percentage of Dalits, about 31.9 per cent, the BJP inducted its Dalit face, the Hoshiarpur MP Vijay Sampla as a Minister of State.
Reaching out to Jats The induction of Chowdhary Birender Singh and Sanwar Lal Jat reflects the BJP’s outreach to the Jats. The party has won a majority in Haryana Assembly recently largely owing to non-Jat consolidation in its favour and now has a Punjabi Chief Minister in the State. With a non-Jat Chief Minister in Haryana, the BJP would like to make amends and ensure future attraction for the community. In fact, the inclusion of Sanwar Lal Jat, the man who defeated Congress’s Sachin Pilot in Ajmer, and Olympian Rajyvardhan Singh Rathod who are both from Rajasthan, reflects the Jat-Rajput consolidation that the BJP had achieved in the State in the recent Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
Here is the full list of newly included Ministers:
Cabinet Minister
3. Jagat Prakash Nadda
Minister of State with Independent Charge
1. Bandaru Datatrye
2. Rajiv Pratap Rudy
3. Mahesh Sharma
Minister of State
1. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi
2. Ram Kripal Yadav
3. Hari Bhai P Chaudhary
4. Sanwar Lal Jaat
5. Mohanbhai Kalyanji Bhai Kundariya
6. Giriraj Singh
7. Hansraj Gangaram Ahir
8. Ram Shankar Katheria
9. YS Chaudhry
10. Jayant Sinha
11. Rajyavardhan S Rathore
12. Babul Supriyo
13. Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti
14. Vijay Sampala