Narendra Modi, the eternal karyakarta , has not forgotten the unknown foot soldiers of the BJP in drawing up his Cabinet.
A number of low-profile leaders from non-urban India have made it to the top rungs.
Leaders like the rustic Manoj Sinha of Ghazipur, a four-term MP who never made it to any ministry either in his native Uttar Pradesh nor the three times the NDA came to power, in 1996, 1998 and 1999.
An engineering graduate from IIT (Benares Hindu University), Sinha was among the best-performing MPs in the 11th Lok Sabha, when he was first elected from Ghazipur in 1996.
A former president of the BHU, Sinha is a well-read, astute politician from the Hindi heartland who has never been recognised for his abilities by the Delhi clique. But in Modi, the grass-root politicians have found their guardian angel.
Hence, instead of the high-profile and corporate-backed Nishikant Dube or even a better known figure such as former CM Arjun Munda, Modi picked the long-time worker and tribal MP from Lohardaga, Sudarshan Bhagat, to represent Jharkhand in his Cabinet.
Bhagat has been a full-time worker, starting his career at the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the students wing of the RSS. He has been minister in the State’s BJP Government for two terms.
The chai connection Kalraj Mishra, the veteran Brahmin from Uttar Pradesh, has become a Union Cabinet Minister for the first time.
He won from Deoria this time, a constituency where Modi himself campaigned.
“In 1975, Kalrajjee came to Gujarat and gave a speech. When he was through, I fetched him a cup of tea. What a coincidence it is that the chaiwallah and chai peene wallah (the one who drank tea) have come together again and are asking for your support,” Modi said in his speech there.
Mishra, who took oath as the Cabinet Minister for Micro, Small and Medium enterprises on Monday, described his elevation as a reflection of the Prime Minister’s “bonding with the common worker”.
“Narendra Modi is an organisation man and someone all of us associate with at a very deep, emotional level.
“He reciprocates that feeling as you can see from the composition of the Cabinet. Common workers, party cadre who no one gave a thought to till now, have been included in the Cabinet.
“It is a sign of our leader’s profound faith in the party and its cadre,” Mishra told Business Line.
Like Mishra said, the Cabinet does reflect Modi’s empathy for the common worker in the organisation.
Kishal Pal Gujjar, a former president of the BJP in Haryana, is now the Minister of State for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping.
Jitender Singh, a low profile party worker who defeated Congress stalwart Ghulam Nabi Azad from Udhampur, is Minister of State with independent charge of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences.
He is also MoS Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Department of Atomic Energy and Department of Space, where his superior is the PM himself.
Radha Mohan Singh, the Thakur strongman from Bihar who headed the State unit of the BJP before CP Thakur, has similarly been awarded with a Cabinet berth with an important portfolio like Agriculture.
“Modiji consulted a lot of people and gave voice to the common worker of the BJP.
“This is a government where the unknown is recognised and due importance is given to people who have built this party without trumpeting their achievements,” said a BJP source.