Prime Minister Narendra Modi's new Council of Ministers in his historic third term has laid an unprecedented emphasis on the southern part of the country, reflecting the outcome of the recently concluded assembly election. The new cabinet includes 13 ministers from south. This despite the BJP tally remaining exactly where it was in 2019 -- 29 of the 129 southern seats.
Five of the 13 southern ministers -- including former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy -- are from Karnataka, BJP's only bastion in the south that delivered 19 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats to the NDA. The BJP won 17 seats and Mr Kumaraswamy's Janata Dal (Secular) two. The state's ruling Congress won nine seats.
Besides Mr Kumaraswamy, the Council of ministers has Nirmala Sitharaman and Pralhad Joshi, who were part of the previous Cabinet. Union Minister of State in the previous Modi government, Shobha Karandlaje, and former minister in the state government V Somanna -- both from BJP -- also took oath today.
Three ministers are from Andhra Pradesh, which delivered 21 seats to the NDA and two from Telangana, which delivered eight seats.
Neighbouring Telangana is being represented by two ministers -- G Kishan Reddy and Bandi Sanjay Kumar. There will a change in state leadership, with Eatala Tajender set to take over as the post. The BJP and the state's ruing Congress won eight seats each and one went to the AIMIM of Asaduddin Owaisi.
There are even two Ministers of State from Kerala, where the BJP opened its account with the victory of Suresh Gopi. They are George Kurian, who has been Kerala BJP's vice-president and part of the National Minorities Commission, and L Murugan, who was the former Tamil Nadu BJP chief.
Tamil Nadu also has been represented by one minister, though the current state BJP chief, K Annamalai, did not get a seat despite rumours that he would be included. It was seen as the party's way of signalling that he would continue as the state party chief and there will be no tie-up with the AIADMK. Tamil Nadu remains the only state where the BJP has failed to win a single seat.
The BJP's focus on south had started since the campaigning days. The results bore out speculation that the northern states, already saturated, will show a downward trend, with anti-incumbency kicking in. While the BJP lost seats in some Hindi heartland states including Bihar and Rajasthan, nowhere was it more pronounced than in Uttar Pradesh, where the party's tally slid from 62 in 2019 to 33. The state, though, has the maximum number of ministers -- nine. It is followed by Bihar, which has eight Central ministers.
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