Modi government 3.0: Allies get 15% of cabinet berths; upper caste numbers at a low | India News

NEW DELHI: Narendra Modi was, on Sunday, sworn in as prime minister for the third time, equalling Jawaharlal Nehru’s record of three straight terms in the top office.
With 71 members, his latest team is bigger than the previous two, and, contrary to speculations, he had little difficulty in putting the council of ministers, despitre leading a coalition govt.TDP and JD(U), in particular, chose not to be difficult as was speculated after voters denied BJP an absolute majority.
Although portfolios have not been announced, the ease of ministry making is being seen as an indication that BJP may not have difficulty in retaining important ministries, not just home, defence, finance and external affairs, but also others crucial for ensuring continuity of policy trajectory.
The exercise was marked by the inclusion of experienced players, including four former CMs, but wasn’t marked by high-wattage exclusions. The govt has seven former CMs, including Modi, and four who have been BJP chiefs.

In terms of social composition, it carries forward the process of earmarking a progressively bigger share to “non-reserved” categories — SCs/STs and OBCs. The drop in strength of the “general category contingent” appears starker. It could paetly be thanks to many heavyweights losing in UP and Bihar. But the messaging from lower upper caste representation is significant in view of the losses BJP suffered because of the opposition’s allegation that it was out to scrap quotas.
There is a deviation also from the trend of progressively higher share for women, the departure setting off the buzz on early action on women’s quota in legislatures. There are six women in the council with Nirmala Sitharaman and Annapurna Devi, who got a promotion, designated cabinet ministers.
More striking, however, is the non-representation of Muslims; it is the first instance of a central govt taking office without any representative of the largest minority community on board.
Including the 30 members with cabinet rank, it is the largest council of ministers since 2014, the increase resulting from the need to accommodate 11 from among BJP allies. J P Nadda, who will soon complete his tenure as BJP president, made a comeback in govt, paving the way for an organisational recast. Nadda’s entry also meant that Anurag Singh Thakur, MP from Hamirpur in Himachal, missed out, but is likely to get a prominent party post. Dharmendra Pradhan’s inclusion in the Union cabinet for the third straight time is a confirmation that the party will look for a legislator from Odisha to be sworn in as chief minister on Monday. Pradhan had looked the obvious frontrunner for the post in Bhubaneswar.
Apart from BJP’s Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Manohar Lal, former CMs of MP and Haryana respectively, the govt also boasts of two other former CMs in H D Kumaraswamy (JDS) and Jitan Ram Manjhi (HAM) to add to the bench strength. Among prominent allies, NCP opted out of the cabinet, at least for the time being, with its representative, former cabinet minister Praful Patel, publicly saying the offer of MoS was not acceptable to him because it would have meant a demotion.
Overall, there were 33 first-time ministers, with seven of them from alliance partners, including TDP’s K Rammohan Naidu and Chandra Shekhar Pemmasani, JD(U)’s Lallan Singh and Ram Nath Thakur, RLD’s Jayant Chaudhary, LJP’s Chirag Paswan and Kumaraswamy from JD(S). Naidu is the youngest cabinet minister at 36 years.
The PM sought to strike a regional balance, while ensuring that states such as Maharashtra and Haryana, where elections are due, get adequate representation. Despite electoral setbacks in Uttar Pradesh, the state retains its primacy in terms of representation with 11 ministers, followed by Bihar (eight), Maharashtra and Gujarat (six each).
The party think tank has also opted to go with those who have won their Lok Sabha seats, ignoring the claims of several candidates who lost the election, with Ravneet Singh ‘Bittu’ and L Murugan being exceptions. Murugan is the only member from Modi’s team from the previous term who has found a berth despite losing the election.
Rajnath Singh (Lucknow), Gajendra Singh Shekhawat (Jodhpur), Jitendra Singh (Udhampur) and Kirti Vardhan Singh (Gonda) are the four ministers from Thakur community, which had a far bigger representation from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in first two terms of Modi govt.