 "Chandrababu Naidu,Narendra Modi,Nitish Kumar")
The new council of ministers, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will see greater representation from Bihar and Andhra Pradesh. However, Uttar Pradesh’s representation in the government might diminish, given the BJP’s decreased seat count in that state by 29.
Swearing in will take place on Sunday.
In the outgoing 72-member council of ministers, UP had 13 ministers, including the PM, Rajnath Singh and some who lost, such as Smriti Irani and Mahendra Nath Pandey. Maharashtra, had nine ministers in the outgoing council of ministers.
The BJP’s allies in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) discussed their respective representation in the council of ministers with the BJP’s national president J P Nadda and others on Friday evening.
According to sources, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena could each get one cabinet berth. Maharashtra is important since the Assembly polls will be held in that state by October. Haryana and Jharkhand are also scheduled for Assembly polls as is the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
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In Maharashtra, the NDA could win only 17 of its 48 seats, down from the 42 (including Amravati which an NDA supported candidate had won) that the undivided NDA had won in 2019.
The Ajit Pawar-led NCP, which performed poorly in the Lok Sabha elections, has an MP each in the two Houses -- Sunil Tatkare who won from Maharashtra’s Raigad seat and former Union minister Praful Patel, who is a Rajya Sabha member.
Shinde, the Maharashtra Chief Minister, has ruled out that his son Shrikant, an MP from Kalyan, will be in the cabinet. His party has seven Lok Sabha MPs.
The Janata Dal (United), with 12 MPs in the Lok Sabha and four in the Rajya Sabha is negotiating for three to four ministerial berths. The party, sources said, is keen to get the Railways, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj portfolios.
The JDU’s Rajya Sabha MPs include Sanjay Kumar Jha, who accompanied Bihar CM Nitish Kumar to the meeting of the NDA leaders on Wednesday, and Ram Nath Thakur, son of former Bihar CM Karpoor Thakur. Harivansh is one of the four Rajya Sabha MPs of the JDU and not in contention since he is the Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman.
In the Lok Sabha, the JDU’s senior MPs are Rajeev Ranjan ‘Lalan’ Singh from Munger and Kaushalendra Kumar from Nitish’s home district of Nalanda. Hindustan Awam Morcha (Secular)’s Jitan Ram Manjhi, a former Bihar CM, could also be accommodated.
Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas)’s Chirag Paswan could get a cabinet berth. Paswan, however, has said his party's support is unconditional. The LJP (RV) won five seats.
On Friday, at the NDA meeting, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president N Chandrababu Naidu and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar endorsed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the leader of the NDA.
Nitish expressed the hope that the PM will take care of Bihar’s development while Naidu stressed the need to balance national and regional interests. The TDP has won 16 MPs in the Lok Sabha. Its ally Jana Sena Party has won two and BJP three from Andhra Pradesh. The TDP and JSP have no representation in the Rajya Sabha.
