New Delhi:
India's most populous state Uttar Pradesh got only five ministers, none of them of Cabinet rank, when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expanded his Cabinet on Thursday.
While the state saw revival of Congress in Lok Sabha polls with 21 seats, there were only two ministers of state with independent charge Sriprakash Jaiswal and Salman Khurshid and three MoS Jitin Prasada and R P N Singh and Pradeep Jain.
As against this, Himachal Pradesh, which returned only one member, has been rewarded with two Cabinet berths -- Virbhadra Singh and Anand Sharma.
Uttarakhand, which was carved out of UP's hilly areas, has got only one entrant into the council of ministers -- Harish Rawat, despite Congress making a clean sweep of all the five seats in the state.
Maharashtra, which is going to assembly polls later this year, has been given the highest representation with ministerial berths including five in the Cabinet.
The Cabinet Ministers from Maharashtra are Sharad Pawar of NCP, Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushilkumar Shinde, Mukul Wasnik and Murli Deora (all Congress). It has two MoS with Independent Charge Praful Patel and Prithviraj Chavan and two MoS Gurudas Kamat and Prateek Patil.
Kerala, which gave a big boost to Congress tally, has got two Cabinet berths A K Antony and Vayalar Ravi and four MoS Shashi Tharoor, Mullappally Ramachandran, K V Thomas and E Ahamed.
Like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu also has five Cabinet ministers, three of them from DMK, and four MoS -- all from the Dravidian party.
Andhra Pradesh, where Congress secured the biggest victory with 33 seats, has got one Cabinet berth -- S Jaipal Reddy, one MoS with independent charge Jairam Ramesh and four MoS -- D Purandeswari, Panabaka Lakshmi, Sai Prathap and M Pallam Raju.
The name of senior Congress member from Andhra Pradesh V Kishore Chandra Deo is being mentioned for the Lok Sabha Speaker's post.
Orissa, which gave six seats to Congress, has been given only one MoS in Srikant Jena. Incidentally, Jena was a cabinet minister in the United Front government in 1996-98.
Karnataka has got three berths in the Cabinet with the induction of S M Krishna, M Veerappa Moily and Mallikarjun Kharge and one MoS K H Muniappa.
Subodh Kant Sahay, lone Congress member to win from Jharkhand, has been elevated from MoS (Independent Charge) to the cabinet rank.
Madhya Pradesh, which saw senior leader Arjun Singh being dropped, has two cabinet ministers including Kamal Nath. Kantilal Bhuria has been elevated to Cabinet status, Jyotiraditya Scindia being retained as MoS while young leader Arun Yadav brought in as MoS.
Haryana, which gave nine out of ten seats to Congress, has got only one Cabinet with the elevation of Kumari Selja. H R Bhardwaj from the state has been dropped.
Bihar, which elected two Congress MPs, has one Cabinet minister in the form of Meira Kumar.
Rajasthan, which was yet another success story for the Congress with 20 out of 25 seats, has got one Cabinet berth in C P Joshi, state Congress President and three MoS in Namo Narain Meena, Sachin Pilot and Mahadev Khandela.
Like Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir too had two Cabinet ministers -- Ghulam Nabi Azad and Farooq Abdullah.
Punjab has two Cabinet ministers in Ambika Soni and M S Gill and one MoS -- Preneet Kaur, wife of former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh.
Incidentally, Meghalaya which elects two MPs has hundred per cent representation in the ministry with NCP's Agatha Sangma as the youngest member and Congress Vincent Pala also finding a berth.
In Delhi, where Congress has won all the seven seats, it has given three ministerships -- a cabinet berth for Kapil Sibal, MoS (independent charge) for Krishna Tirath and MoS for Ajay Maken.
Gujarat, which elected 11 Congress members, has got one MoS independent charge and two MoS.