Cabinet expansions are not so much about governance as about politics. All governments use them to telegraph messages to voters, party cadres, leaders and to allies. Sunday’s rejig, in which 21 ministers were sworn into Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s council of ministers, was no different. It was clearly aimed to bolster Bharatiya Janata Party’s chances of electoral victories in the country’s east.
The inclusion of a sizeable contingent from Bihar, Yashwant Sinha’s son Jayant Sinha from Jharkhand, and Babul Supriyo from West Bengal were signs of the BJP’s calculations to expand its footprints in these states.
In Bihar, a politically significant state where assembly elections are due in September-October next year, the BJP faces a formidable challenge from a grand alliance of the Janata Dal (United), Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress. It was no coincidence then that the government included BJP leaders from three castes that may be critical for the BJP’s success in the state next year. BJP general secretary Rajiv Pratap Rudy is a Thakur, Nawada MP Giriraj Singh is a prominent Bhumihar leader, and Pataliputra MP Ram Kripal Yadav hails from the powerful grouping of other backward classes.
A new caste equation
The polarisation of these three castes helped the BJP achieve miracles in Bihar in the Lok Sabha election this year. But in the bypolls that followed, the newly forged BJP vote base crumbled. While Thakurs and Bhumihars were apathetic to the saffron party, Yadavs reverted to the Rashtriya Janata Dal and its coalition. In the cabinet expansion on Sunday was enclosed an effort to bring the castes back to the BJP.
Apart from caste calculations, the three inductees from Bihar were also chosen for their symbolic importance. Rudy defeated Rabri Devi, wife of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, in the Lok Sabha election. Ram Kripal Yadav, a one-time Lalu loyalist, defeated RJD leader’s daughter Misa Bharti. Giriraj Singh, a vocal Modi supporter in the erstwhile JD(U)-BJP government, gained notoriety for his attempt to polarise voters during the Lok Sabha election campaigning by saying: “Those who oppose Narendra Modi should go to Pakistan.”
Jharkhand and West Bengal were the other states that seemingly figured in the BJP’s arithmetic before the new cabinet ministers were decided.
Mollifying Sinha
In Jharkhand, where five-phase assembly elections will begin later this month, the BJP leadership had been worried about party veteran Yashwant Sinha hurting its prospects. A former union minister who holds considerable clout among the state’s non-tribal population, Sinha had been sulking because his bête noire former Chief Minister Arjun Munda is calling the shots in the party. To placate the veteran, the BJP inducted Sinha’s son Jayant Sinha into the council of ministers.
In West Bengal, the BJP wanted to take advantage of the changing equations on the ground. In the Lok Sabha election, it won two seats in the state and in the following bypolls it won the Basirhat Dakshin assembly constituency. By inducting the first minister from the state into the Modi cabinet, it indicated that the party has its eyes trained on the 2016 assembly elections, particularly given the vulnerability of the ruling Trinamool Congress, the decay of the Left parties, and the confusion in the Congress ranks in West Bengal.
Supriyo, the new minister from Bengal, is a first-time BJP member of parliament from Asansol. While campaigning for him during the Lok Sabha polls, Modi had said: “I want Babul in Parliament… I am giving you my word that I will make this youth a hero of the country.” Supriyo, a playback singer, may not become a “hero”, but he clearly has been made a significant actor in the theatre of politics by the BJP.
The inclusion of a sizeable contingent from Bihar, Yashwant Sinha’s son Jayant Sinha from Jharkhand, and Babul Supriyo from West Bengal were signs of the BJP’s calculations to expand its footprints in these states.
In Bihar, a politically significant state where assembly elections are due in September-October next year, the BJP faces a formidable challenge from a grand alliance of the Janata Dal (United), Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress. It was no coincidence then that the government included BJP leaders from three castes that may be critical for the BJP’s success in the state next year. BJP general secretary Rajiv Pratap Rudy is a Thakur, Nawada MP Giriraj Singh is a prominent Bhumihar leader, and Pataliputra MP Ram Kripal Yadav hails from the powerful grouping of other backward classes.
A new caste equation
The polarisation of these three castes helped the BJP achieve miracles in Bihar in the Lok Sabha election this year. But in the bypolls that followed, the newly forged BJP vote base crumbled. While Thakurs and Bhumihars were apathetic to the saffron party, Yadavs reverted to the Rashtriya Janata Dal and its coalition. In the cabinet expansion on Sunday was enclosed an effort to bring the castes back to the BJP.
Apart from caste calculations, the three inductees from Bihar were also chosen for their symbolic importance. Rudy defeated Rabri Devi, wife of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, in the Lok Sabha election. Ram Kripal Yadav, a one-time Lalu loyalist, defeated RJD leader’s daughter Misa Bharti. Giriraj Singh, a vocal Modi supporter in the erstwhile JD(U)-BJP government, gained notoriety for his attempt to polarise voters during the Lok Sabha election campaigning by saying: “Those who oppose Narendra Modi should go to Pakistan.”
Jharkhand and West Bengal were the other states that seemingly figured in the BJP’s arithmetic before the new cabinet ministers were decided.
Mollifying Sinha
In Jharkhand, where five-phase assembly elections will begin later this month, the BJP leadership had been worried about party veteran Yashwant Sinha hurting its prospects. A former union minister who holds considerable clout among the state’s non-tribal population, Sinha had been sulking because his bête noire former Chief Minister Arjun Munda is calling the shots in the party. To placate the veteran, the BJP inducted Sinha’s son Jayant Sinha into the council of ministers.
In West Bengal, the BJP wanted to take advantage of the changing equations on the ground. In the Lok Sabha election, it won two seats in the state and in the following bypolls it won the Basirhat Dakshin assembly constituency. By inducting the first minister from the state into the Modi cabinet, it indicated that the party has its eyes trained on the 2016 assembly elections, particularly given the vulnerability of the ruling Trinamool Congress, the decay of the Left parties, and the confusion in the Congress ranks in West Bengal.
Supriyo, the new minister from Bengal, is a first-time BJP member of parliament from Asansol. While campaigning for him during the Lok Sabha polls, Modi had said: “I want Babul in Parliament… I am giving you my word that I will make this youth a hero of the country.” Supriyo, a playback singer, may not become a “hero”, but he clearly has been made a significant actor in the theatre of politics by the BJP.
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