During his maiden visit to Varanasi — his parliamentary constituency — Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that he was able to form a stable Government because of Uttar Pradesh, and on his first Cabinet expansion he repaid UP’s gratitude by including five more Ministers from this politically sensitive State in his Cabinet.
Of 21 Ministers who took oath on Sunday five are from Uttar Pradesh. With this total number of Ministers from UP in Union Cabinet have gone up to 14. This list also includes Narendra Modi — who is MP from Varanasi.The MPs who are already Ministers in Union Cabinet are: Kalraj Mishra, Rajnath Singh, Menaka Gandhi, Uma Bharati (all Cabinet rank Ministers), Santosh Gangwar (Minister of State for Independent charge) and Sanjeev Baliyan and Manoj Sinha (Minister of State).
BJP’s national vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, two time MP from Agra Dr Rama Shankar Katheria, MP from Gautam Budh Nagar Dr Mahesh Sharma and Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, MP from Fatehpur took oath of office and secrecy as Ministers in Union Cabinet. Besides, former Chief Minister from Goa Manohar Parrikar will go to Rajya Sabha from UP.
Barring Parrikar, whose election from UP was a political compulsion all other Ministers were picked up keeping caste and region in mind. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who was Minister of State for Information in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government is the Muslim face of Uttar Pradesh.This two-time MP from Rajya Sabha had won last election in 1998 from Rampur, the home district of Azam Khan, the Muslim mascot of Samajwadi Party. His induction in the Government is an attempt of the BJP to send positive feelers to the minority community.
Modi has also kept Dalit vote-bank in mind in carrying out this expansion. Two of the other Ministers namely Sadhavi Niranjan Jyoti represents Nishad community while Ramashanker Katheria is a Dalit from Agra. The 2014 lok Sabha results have shown a shift of Dalit vote-bank from BSP to BJP. In the ensuing by-elections the Dalits have voted for Samajwadi Party. This has indicated emergence of a new trend as Dalits have emerged as a floater for the first time in decade and a half.
Sadhavi Niranjan was elected in 2012 Assembly elections from Hamirpur in Bundelkhand region said: “My induction into the Cabinet is a big victory for our community. Modiji has bestowed faith on me and I will try to prove my worth.”In this expansion, Modi has not touched eastern Uttar Pradesh. Of the five MPs – three Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Rama Shankar Katheria and Dr Mahesh Sharama are from western UP.
“The expansion is a clever mix of region and caste. Now we can say Modi’s Cabinet has people from all the regions of Uttar Pradesh – be it Bundelkhand, eastern UP, western UP and Central UP. In true sense UP gets a good representation in Union Cabinet,” BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak said.