One of the obvious political thrusts of the Tuesday Cabinet expansion was strengthening the BJP’s vote garnering capacity in the eastern Uttar Pradesh, particularly the Varanasi region. With induction of two more MPs from the region in the Union Council of Ministers, the eastern UP got three Ministers, besides Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Modi’s Varanasi constituency shares close proximity with Chandauli, Mirzapur, Bhadohi, Ghazipur and Machhalishahr. Of these five MPs from the region, three are Ministers — MoS for Railways Manoj Sinha (Ghazipur) and newly sworn-in Mahendra Nath Pandey from Chandauli, and Anupriya Patel (Apna Dal) from Mirzapur, leaving just Virendra Singh Mast from Bhadohi and Ram Chandra Nishad from Machalishahr.
Varanasi Region comprises three divisions of Varanasi, Azamgarh and Vindhyachal (Mirzapur) with 12 Parliamentary seats. In the last parliamentary elections in 2014, the BJP swept the region, winning all except Azamgarh seat, which was won by the Samajwadi Party (SP) president Mulayam Singh Yadav.
The region has three reserved constituencies of Robertsganj, Machhalishahr and lalganj and all of them were won by BJP candidates. Surprisingly, the party, which is trying hard to woo the Dalits in view of the forthcoming Assembly elections in UP, did not consider any of three MPs from these constituencies namely Chhotelal, Ram Chandra Nishad and Neelam Sonkar.
The region has two women representatives and one of them, Anupriya Patel has become a Minister now. Three days ago despite heavy rains, Anupriya organised a Jan Swabhiman Rally on the birth anniversary of her father and Apna Dal’s founder late Dr Sone lal Patel in Rohania, an Assembly segment of PM’s lok Sabha seat in the presence of BJP chief Amit Shah.
Then it became almost certain that the BJP would definitely accommodate Anupriya in the Cabinet to check Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s foray into Kurmi voters in the region. Recently, Nitish conducted two rallies in the region. Kurmis play a major role in some of the constituencies, including Varanasi, Mirzapur and Machhalishahr apart from some others in other areas in Purvanchal (eastern UP).
While Manoj Sinha (Bhumihar) and Mahendra Nath Pandey (Brahmin) are Upper Castes while Anupriya is an OBC. In the 2014 lok Sabha polls, by fielding maximum Upper Caste candidates the BJP had succeeded not only in wooing them but also inspired them to come out to cast their votes in big numbers, resulting in victory of all five Upper Caste candidates -- Jaunpur (Krishna Pratap Singh), Ballia (Bharat Singh), Bhadohi (Virendra Singh), Ghazipur (Bhumihar) and Mahendra Nath Pandey (Brahmin).
While both Bhumihar and Brahmin got ministerial berths but out of three Rajputs none of them was considered for Ministry. Out of three OBC candidates fielded by National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in 2014, two won while Ramakant Yadav lost to Mulayam.
Besides, the share of Banaras Hindu University (BHU) has also increased in Ministry as the likes of Manoj Sinha and Mahendra Natrh Pandey are a former BHU Students Union office-bearers.