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3 states, 134 seats but only 2 cabinet berths

Anoop Mishra - May 28, 2009

PATNA — The Union Council of Ministers was expanded on Thursday with the induction of 59 ministers. In all, 14 cabinet ministers were sworn in by President Pratibha Patil, six days after Prime Minister and 19 others took oath in the first installment.

With Thursday’s induction, the strength of the Union Council of Ministers goes up to 79, including the Prime Minister, the same as the previous UPA government after the exit of Shivraj Patil.

Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand that collectively sends 134 Lok Sabha MPs could secure only 2 cabinet berths in the government led by Manmohan Singh who just after the Congress led UPA won the elections had pledged “inclusive growth”.

Uttar Pradesh, where the Congress won an incredible 21 seats, finds no representation in the cabinet. While Sri Prakash Jaiswal and Salman Khurshid are minister of state with independent charge, three others — Jitin Prasada, RPN Singh and Pradeep Jain — are ministers of state.

The number of ministers from Bihar in the Union council of ministers has come down from a dozen in 2004 to one in 2009.

Meira Kumar, Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment and daughter of the late Jagjivan Ram, one of the least visible UPA ministers in the last government is the lone face from Bihar to have found a berth in the Union Cabinet. Congress could win only 2 seats – Sasaram and Kishanganj in Bihar.

People in Bihar were hoping that two independent MPs Digvijay Singh and Om Prakash Yadav would be sworn in.

In the outgoing UPA ministry, there were four Union ministers of the Cabinet rank from Bihar besides eight Union state ministers. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led NDA government in 1999 had 13 ministers from Bihar.

Subodh Kant Sahay, the lone Congress MP from Jharkhand was inducted today as a cabinet minister.

Three of Delhi’s seven MPs are in the government: Kapil Sibal, Ajay Maken and Krishna Tirath.

Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra have five ministers each in the 33-member cabinet. Tamil Nadu’s total representation in the council of ministers will be 10 — three from Congress and seven from DMK.

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5 Responses to “3 states, 134 seats but only 2 cabinet berths”

As I know Digvijay is well educate and well matured politician and he deserve the good position … but in between Digvijay and Nitish they have the cold war .. when NDA nominated Nitish as CM Digvijay Singh was not agree and he tried to nominate someone else … that is why Nitish kept him away in last election … so blaming to only person does’t looks good … as both are the good politician ..

Mukesh Singh May 31st, 2009 8:24 am

Mr Arun Kumar ,
For your kind information Damodar Rout is not a Kurmi candidate he belongs from EBC categary …JDU had given the ticket to Only two Kurmi in last election (Kaushlendra Kumar from Nalanda and Brishan Patel from Siwan ), 4 yadav, 3 rajput , 3 bhumihar, 3 koeri, 4EBC , 4 dalit , 2 muslim . Could you let me know where do you think it’s castism ?.
to drive a society from all cast and relegion people must be selected .not from one particular cast .

Mukesh Singh May 31st, 2009 8:19 am

it is the inside politics through which Digvijay singh didnt get the birth in cabinet,all this bad politics is done by none other than Nitish kr,he used to casteism politics he dont want to give chance to other specially development person.keep it mind if nitish is vikash purus than singh is vikash++++++,otherwise go banka and see his development.
so,decide 4 future assem election.

kumar May 30th, 2009 9:06 am

Hi! I am shahnawaz , first of all Thanks to JAI BIHAR for giving good informatoin to us on bihar related all information

md shahnawaz alam May 30th, 2009 3:24 am

Digvijay Singh could have made it to the ministry. He was an able state external affairs minister in Atal Bihari government of NDA. It is very obvious that Congress strategically decided to exclude Digvijay Singh to keep Nitish Kumar in good humour as his 20 JD(U) MPs can help him during the time of crisis. Win of a strong and equally good leader like Digvijay Singh is not a good news for Nitish Kumar. He has tried to shunt out all able leaders arrogantly but silently to keep his stature unchallenged in Bihar.

Both JD(u) rebel OP Yadav (Siwan) and Digvijay Singh (Banka) won because of their personal good image despite Nitish Kumar throwing all his weight and all possible government support to get two Kurmis (Damodar Raut – Banka, Brishan Patel – Siwan) elected.

Obviously Nitish wants to take all credit for Bihar’s change story whereas the truth is that the same man with 37 years of political career and enjyong several ministerial berths did not do a single positive work for Bihar.

Arun Kumar May 29th, 2009 3:22 am

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