New Delhi: The exercise to reshape the government is believed to have undergone a detailed process of planning and evaluation. The 19 new entrants fall into neat brackets of caste, regional and social classifications.
So, Uttar Pradesh that has sent the largest contingent of MPs to the Lok Sabha-71 gets three berths- a Brahmin Mahendra Nath Pandey, a Dalit Krishna Raj and an OBC Anupriya Singh Patel of the Apna Dal, an ally of the ruling the party.
Similarly, the Prime Minister’s home state Gujarat also gets three slots- Purshottam Rupala, Jasvantsinh Bhabhor a tribal, Mansukh Mandaviya. But one minister from the state Manuskhbhai D Vasva has been dropped.
There are five professionals with PP Chaudhary an advocate from Rajasthan who is close to Yoga guru Baba Ramdev, a surgeon, Subhash Bhamre from Maharashtra, an editor, MJ Akbar, a former bureaucrat Arjun Ram Meghwal from Rajasthan and a writer and conservationist Anil Madhav Dave from Madhya Pradesh.
Two new ministers – Jasvantsinh Bhabhor and Faggan Singh Kulaste – belong to Scheduled Tribes and five to Scheduled Castes — Ajay Tamta, Ramdas Athawale, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Ramesh Jigajinagi and Krishna Raj.
There are two minority leaders – MJ Akbar and SS Ahluwalia – and two women — Anupriya Singh Patel and Krishna Raj. In all, the ministers come from ten states- 10 states – Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Bengal, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Karnataka and Assam. There are three each from UP and Gujarat, and one from Uttarakhand – all states where elections will be held next year.
