Uttar Pradesh got its reward for electing maximum 71 BJP Members of Parliament when eight leaders from this politically sensitive state got ministerial berth in the Narendra Modi cabinet that took shape on Tuesday.
Of these eight ministers – four are cabinet rank – which includes Rajnath Singh, Uma Bharati, Kalraj Mishra and Menaka Gandhi. Two MPs – Gen retd V.K. Singh and Santosh Gangwar are Minister of State (Independent charge) while Manoj Sinha and Dr Sanjiv Balyaan took oath as Minister of State.
Besides these eight, Smriti Irani, who unsuccessfully contested against Congress vice-president from Amethi also got Cabinet berth. Smriti Irani is a Rajya sabha MP from Gujarat.
It was expected that Uttar Pradesh would get a lion’s share in Modi’s cabinet because of the sweep the party had got from this state. Uttar Pradesh has 80 seats and BJP won 71 of these. Besides, its ally Apna Dal won two seats of Mirzapur and Pratapgarh.
The regional balance and caste equation was taken into account while picking up the names. The list has the mix of Thakur, Brahmins, backwards including lodh and Kurmi. But the only caste missing in the list is that of dalit. Besides this flaw, Modi has been able to match the regional balance by picking up ministers from western UP, Bundelkhand, Purvanchal and Terai.
With Modi being elected from Varanasi the eastern UP gets maximum share. Kalraj Mishra and Manoj Sinha were elected from purvanchal too. Gen Singh and Dr Baliyan are elected from western UP, Uma Bharati from Bundelkhand, Rajnath Singh from central UP and Menaka from Terai.
Rajnath Singh (lucknow), Uma Bharati (Jhansi), Kalraj Mishra (deoria) and Menaka Gandhi (Pilibhit) – all are seasoned campaigners. Barring Kalraj Mishra the other three were ministers in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee cabinet. Mishra was minister in Kalyan Singh cabinet from 1997 to 2000. Even Minister of State (Independent charge) Santosh Gangwar, seven time MP from Bareilly, was Petroleum minister in Atal’s regime.
The only green horns are Gen V.K. Singh (Ghaziabad), who is MoS (independent charge) and two MoS Manoj Sinha (Ghazipur) and Sanjiv baliyan (Muzaffarnagar).
There is a sense of elation in the ministers. “Modi ji has reposed a faith on us. In the meeting he had asked us to work for 18 hours a day. He believes in good governance and we will have to live up to his expectations,” Kalraj Mishra, told The Pioneer after taking oath. Santosh Gangwar chipped in to say: “Asli kaam to ab shuru hoga. There is a big challenge before us.”