MP loses its heft at the centre, gets fewer ministries, Chhattisgarh get one minister too

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 57 member cabinet has four ministers from Madhya Pradesh and one minister from Chhattisgarh. A fifth minister, who is a Rajya Sabha MP from the state, Dharmendra Pradhan is also part of the cabinet but he is not from Madhya Pradesh.

Among those who have been accommodated from Madhya Pradesh (MP) include Narendra Singh Tomar, Thawarchand Gehlot, Prahlad Patel and Faggan Singh Kulaste. While two ministers are from the Lok Sabha, two are from the Upper House. Two ministers (Tomar and Gehlot) have been given cabinet rank, while Patel has MoS (independent charge) and Kulaste is an MoS. Interestingly Kulaste has been inducted in central ministries three times but each time as an MoS.

With four entrants, the representation of MP in the union cabinet has been severely curtailed. During the previous Modi government, at one time, MP had seven ministers from the state while the Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan was from the state too.

Virendra Kumar Khatik, who was a minister in the outgoing Modi cabinet has been dropped, while MJ Akbar who is a Rajya Sabha MP from the state was also made to resign during the term of the previous government itself. Till his previous RS term, Prakash Javdekar was also nominated from the state. Sushma Swaraj who did not contest the Lok Sabha elections from Vidisha is also not in the cabinet while Speaker of the outgoing Lok Sabha did not contest either.

Among the inductees from MP, Narendra Singh Tomar is widely perceived to be the rising star of the BJP and enjoys the trust of the Modi -Shah team. Tomar was a minister in the Uma Bharti, Babulal Gaur and Shivraj Singh Chouhan cabinets in MP and was also state BJP President for two assembly elections, 2008 and 2013 when the BJP held onto power in the state. Tomar was largely perceived to be Chouhan's choice for replacement as MP CM in case he were to move out of office mid term. That opportunity never arose but Tomar has been going places since then and his heft in the BJP today is perhaps more than his one time mentor Chouhan's.

Thawarchand Gehlot is an important dalit leader from MP who is close to PM Modi while Prahlad Patel who was an MoS in Atal Bihari Vajpayee government is a tall OBC leader. He was once close to Uma Bharti and in the rival camp for Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Faggan Singh Kulaste is a top tribal BJP leader from MP and has been minister in the past too.

As far as MP is concerned, PM Modi has inducted one upper caste (Tomar), one dalit (Gehlot), one tribal (Kulaste) and one OBC (Patel) from MP thereby striking a balance in terms of caste and community.

From Chhattisgarh, PM Modi has given the same representation as in the past. While Vishnu Deo Sai was the lone minister from the state in the previous government, Renuka Singh, the BJP MP from Surguja has been inducted this time. She has been a minister in Raman Singh's cabinet in the state and is a tribal. Her induction is in keeping with the BJP's plans to promote tribal leadership in the state, manifested earlier in the appointment of Vikram Usendi as state BJP president.

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