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    Cabinet expansion: 27 OBCs, 12 SCs, 8 STs in PM’s final line-up

    Synopsis

    Even among the OBCs, special attention was paid on giving representation to castes which are lesser in numbers but together they all become a significant vote bank.

    Union Cabinet Reshuffle: 15 ministers, 28 ministers of state take oath in mega expansion
    The Union Cabinet expansion exercise was an attempt to consolidate the OBC, SC and ST communities towards the BJP. On Wednesday, 43 ministers took oath out of which 14 are OBCs, 9 SCs and 4 STs. In all, the Cabinet has 27 OBCs, 12 SCs and 8 STs, who together constitute 61% of the Cabinet.

    Even among the OBCs, special attention was paid on giving representation to castes which are lesser in numbers but together they all become a significant vote bank.

    The equation becomes evident in poll-bound states like UP from where seven ministers have been inducted, taking the total tally to 13 ministers from the state. Of the seven ministers who took oath from UP, three are OBCs, three Dalits and one Brahmin. Among the OBCs, two of them — Anupriya Patel and Pankaj Chaudhary — belong to the Kurmi community, which has been voting for the party since 2014 and now wants to consolidate their position before UP elections. BL Verma is a Lodh OBC, a community which has been with the BJP since the Kalyan Singh days. Among the Dalits, the focus has been to penetrate the non-Jatav Dalit voters. Kaushal Kishor comes from the Pasi community while Bhanu Pratap Verma belongs to the Kori community. Agra MP SPS Baghel belongs to the Dhangar community. In Agra, where Jatavs are in sizeable numbers, Baghel won the Lok Sabha election, consolidating the non-Jatav Dalit votes in his favour. He has influence over nearby Firozabad and Etawah. BJP’s focus has been to consolidate non-Jatav Dalit votes in its favour.

    In Bihar, where the party has been getting upper caste votes, it has preferred to induct two allies — RCP Singh, a Kurmi and Pashupati Kumar Paras, a Dalit — into the Cabinet.

    After Thawar Chand Gehlot became a governor, a Dalit face has to be given a chance from MP and Virendra Kumar fitted the bill. He is an MP from Tikamgarh and belongs to the Khatik community.

    Three new ministers have been inducted from Gujarat and all are OBCs. SCs are a strong vote bank in West Bengal and despite losing the assembly elections, BJP has now reached out to various SC communities of the state to mark its presence. Of the four ministers from West Bengal, two are SCs and one is from the ST community. The two prominent SC communities are the Rajbangshis in north Bengal and the Namashudras in the South. While both are opposed to each other, BJP has balanced by inducting one minister from both communities.

    In Karnataka, after the ouster of Sadanand Gowda from the Cabinet, BJP has got Shobha Karandlaje, another Gowda, into the Cabinet. Bidar MP Bhagwanth Khuba is the Lingayat face in the Cabinet. A Narayanaswamy is a popular Madiga Dalit leader and his inclusion has been to appease the Dalit votes of his community spread across the state. L Murugan, the Tamil Nadu BJP president, belongs to the most oppressed Arundhatiyars, a Dalit community in the state. This is the community for which DMK has been demanding 5% reservation.

    Bhupendra Yadav and Annapurna Devi belong to the Yadav community from Rajasthan and Jharkhand respectively.






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