Modi making shrewd moves

Within less than six months, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to expand his Cabinet carries strong messages for his party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members, its allies, rivals and for political pundits regarding the forthcoming assembly elections.
Fifty percent of the new members, included in the Cabinet are fresh members of the BJP. Birendra Singh, a former Congress leader, joined the BJP just ahead of the recently conducted assembly elections in Haryana. Suresh Prabhu, earlier a Shiv Sena member, joined BJP just a few hours before taking oath as a Cabinet minister. Anil Desai, another Shiv Sena member, expected to be included in the Cabinet, had to skip the event owing to political row between his party and the BJP.
The other two newly included Cabinet ministers are former Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parikkar and BJP Vice President JP Nadda from Himachal Pradesh.
In addition to these four, 17 members were included in the expanded Cabinet, three as ministers of state (independent charge) and 14 as ministers of state. This expansion has increased the number of members in Modi’s team from 45 to 66.
With Bihar scheduled to face assembly polls around 11 months later, three more ministers from this state have been included in Modi’s team. Bihar already had three Cabinet ministers and a minister of state in the Cabinet. Now, seven ministers represent the state, with the expanded Cabinet including Ram Kripal Yadav (a former aid of prominent Bihar leader Lalu Prasad Yadav), Giriraj Singh and Rajiv Pratap Rudy. Among these three, Giriraj Singh is a Bhumihar, an influential upper caste in Bihar, which has been a strong supporter of the BJP.
A similar political card has been used by increasing representation from Uttar Pradesh (UP) in the Lok Sabha. Including Modi, elected from Varanasi, earlier the council of ministers had four Cabinet ministers and four ministers of state. Now, the expanded Cabinet has 13 members from UP. The UP state government is presently in the hands of Samajwadi Party (SP).
With the inclusion of Shankar from UP and Vijay Sampla from Punjab, Modi Cabinet has five Dalit members. Against a national average of 18 percent, 28 percent of Punjab population is Dalit. As Punjab faces assembly polls in 2017, Modi is hopeful of BJP emerging victorious here with the help of the Dalit vote bank. Bandaru Dattatreya, a senior BJP member is the only representative from Telangana in the expanded Cabinet. Dattatreya, Naqvi and Rudy are three ministers of state with independent charge. Babul Supriyo, a first time BJP parliamentarian and a popular singer, is the first minister from West Bengal to be included in Modi’s Cabinet. He has been included as a minister of state. While addition of new members highlights the importance given to caste politics, it also indicates the minimal importance given to Muslims’ and women’s representation in his team.
Undeniably, with a few Cabinet members unable to handle several ministerial portfolios at the same time, Modi had no option but to increase the strength of his Cabinet and distribute their workload. At the same time, it cannot be ignored that inclusion of new members earlier linked with BJP’s rival parties or its allies clearly signals that those who choose to join BJP are likely to be suitably rewarded.

— nilofarsuhrawardy@hotmail.com