New Delhi: With the induction of new faces into the Modi Cabinet, it shows that the 'jumbo' expansion has been done keeping in mind the future political challenges, including Assembly elections due next year and 2024 general elections where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to seek a third straight term in office.
According to the list of new ministers, who took oath on Wednesday, a record 27 ministers belonging to OBC and 12 ministers belonging to the Dalit community have been incorporated, which makes it clear that the mega reshuffle is mainly aimed at the lion's share of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) and the Dalit vote bank in the upcoming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and other states.
In contrary to the claims of BJP leaders that 'all is well' in the Uttar Pradesh BJP unit over Yogi Adityanath as the chief ministerial face in the 2022 Assembly elections, the induction of Kaushal Kishor, who had criticised Yogi for poor Covid management is enough to draw the line that the Central leadership is in a power balancing act. Kishor is BJP MP from Mohanlalganj in Lucknow.
The 12 ministers belonging to Scheduled Castes are from the states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu and all the eight states have a sizeable number of Dalit voters.
Also, there are eight ministers belonging to the Scheduled Tribes community and five ministers from the minority community.
In total, there are eight ministers from Uttar Pradesh who have been inducted into the Modi government on Wednesday.
They are Hardeep Singh Puri, Pankaj Choudhary, Ajay Kumar, Anupriya Patel, Satya Pal Singh Baghel, Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma, Kaushal Kishore and BL Verma. Of these, Baghel and Verma are two prominent OBC leaders from Uttar Pradesh.
There are five ministers from Gujarat who took the oath. Of these, the elevation of Mansukh Mandaviya and Parshottam Rupala to the Cabinet rank shows that the BJP has tried to woo Patel voters in the state, which goes to polls in December 2022. Other leaders who have been inducted into the Cabinet include Darshana Vikram Jardosh, Chauhan Devusinh and Munjapara Mahendrabhai.
Induction of Annapurna Devi from Jharkhand and Bhupender Yadav, who is a Rajya Sabha member from Rajasthan, into the Modi government is an attempt to consolidate the Yadav vote bank in Bihar and Jharkhand.
It's worth mentioning that Bhupender Yadav had played a major role in making Annapurna Devi switch her side from RJD to BJP just before the Lok Sabha polls in 2019. Inclusion of rebel LJP leader Pashupati Paras in the Cabinet is aimed at giving representation of Dalit voters in Bihar.