Shivaji SarkarÎNEW DELHI, Mar 19: Tamil Nadu appears to have got more than its due share of representation in the BJP-led colaition ministry, thanks largely to the crucial role that Jayalalith's AIADMK has had to play in its formation. The state has got seven ministers, four cabinet and three ministers of state (MoS).The council of ministers is largely representative of regional aspirations. Almost all major states except for West Bengal, Kerala, Himachal and Jammu and Kashmir are represented.
The states having alliance partners - Bihar, Punjab, Karnataka, Tamilnadu and Orissa - have apparently been taken care of well.
Maharashtra, where the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance had to bite the dust, has got poor representation. It got only two, one cabinet for SS leader Suresh Prabhu and the other MoS for senior BJP leader Ram Naik. Rajasthan, having fared badly for the BJP, has to be content with only two ministers - Buta Singh (cabinet) and Vasundhara Raje (MoS).
Jayalalitha had demanded the lion's share citingthat in the United Front ministry the state had eight ministers - four cabinet and four MoS. She was told that DMK-TMC together had 39 seats while now the AIADMK-BJP combine have 30. Since she refused to budge, the BJP leadership treated the state as an exception and decided to accede to her demands. Only one of them, R Kumaramangalam, belongs to the BJP, the rest are from AIADMK, Tamil Rajiv Congress and MDMK.
No other, not even the biggest state of Uttar Pradesh, has so many ministers. Against Tamil Nadu's four, UP has only one cabinet rank minister, Murali Manohar Joshi. Other four are MoS, three from the party and one Independent supported by the party, Maneka Gandhi.
Apart from Sikandar Bakht, the only Muslim Mokhtar Abbas Naqvi to join is also from UP. He has the distinction of defeating the Congress candidate Begum of Rampur, Noor Bano. Gujarat having held the fort for the BJP has got only three berths - two cabinet ones for BJP president LK Advani and the other for former Gujarat state chiefKashiram Rana. The post of MoS has gone to economist AK Patel. Rana was included as the leadership wanted to keep him away from state politics as at one time he had been a claimant for chief-ministership.
Against this, Orissa have three - one cabinet for Biju Janata Dal chief Navin Patnaik, and two MoS. One of the two MoS, Dilip Ray is also from BJD. The second MoS Devendra Pradhan is from BJP.
Bihar has four. But in this case, three are of cabinet rank, two from Samata - George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar - and one from BJP, Yashwant Sinha. The MoS, Babulal Marandi was chosen for being a tribal.
In the case of Madhya Pradesh, it is just the reverse. The state has got only one cabinet, Satya Narain Jatiya. He, apart from being a senior party leader, also represents the scheduled castes. MoS Uma Bharati's long-term service as a campaigner for Ram Janmabhoomi has been given recognition. The other MoS, Ramesh Bains, MP from Raipur, has also put in long-term service.
Among the union territories, Delhi hasbeen in the happiest position having got three cabinet positions - Sikandar Bakht, Madan Lal Khurana and Sushma Swaraj. While Bakht and Swaraj had been in the 13-day ministry as well Khurana has been included to keep him out of Delhi level politics so that chief minister Sahib Singh Verma can function smoothly.
The states of Andhra, Arunachal and Assam had to satisfy with a berth of MoS each. The problem for leadership had been that they lacked proper talent from these areas so whatever was available was inducted. Bangaru Dattatreya from Secunderabad though a second timer does not have administrative experience.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
