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Bengaluru: The glut for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in north and central India and a near-drought in the south in the Lok Sabha elections has left three big southern states without representation in Narendra Modi’s council of ministers.

The southern states account for a combined total of 130 Lok Sabha seats but have to be content with just three cabinet ministers and two ministers of state, out of a total 57 ministers who were sworn in Thursday.

In a first in over half-a-century, Tamil Nadu will have no representation in the Union council of ministers. Embarrassed state BJP leaders even tried to put a spin on it saying Nirmala Sitharaman and S. Jaishankar who were inducted into the Cabinet were Tamilians.

Andhra Pradesh, another big state where the BJP fought the elections on its own but failed to win any seat, has also gone unrepresented. Kerala didn’t even present an option for Modi since his party has no Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha MP in the state to choose from.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) could manage to win only 30 seats in the south, which meant little elbow room for Modi to do anything better. The result: A lopsided Modi 2.0 in terms of regional balance.

The cabinet-making exercise would have become even more difficult had the BJP not reaped a rich harvest of 25 seats in Karnataka and a surprising four in Telangana. Its ally in Tamil Nadu, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), managed to win just a lone seat.

Karnataka berths

From Karnataka, Modi chose to retain Cabinet ministers in the last government Nirmala Sitharaman and D.V. Sadananda Gowda, and rewarded four-time MP from Dharwad, Pralhad Joshi, with a cabinet position. Another four-timer Suresh Angadi from Belgaum took oath as a minister of state.

Gowda making it to the Cabinet was no surprise. Although hailing from coastal Karnataka, he won a second time from Bangalore North and his credentials as a former chief minister, state party chief and national vice-president stood him in good stead for a berth. He is a Vokkaliga, one of the politically influential castes.

The other politically powerful community, the Lingayats, the mainstay of the BJP in northern Karnataka, got its rightful shares in Angadi from Belgaum.

The Brahmins, although numerically insignificant, have always been pro-BJP and anti-Congress and that factor would have been on Modi’s mind while picking Joshi.

Anant Kumar Hegde, a minister of state in the previous government, was ignored this time despite winning by a big margin from the coastal Uttara Kannada seat. A motor-mouth, Hegde was more in the news for his controversial statements against minorities than his ministerial achievements.

No one from coastal Karnataka, which has been a BJP stronghold for years and considered a ‘laboratory’ for muscular Hindutva in the south, was chosen.

Shobha Karandlaje from Udupi-Chikmagalur, a close confidant of state BJP chief B.S. Yeddyurappa, was one of the hopefuls. Also dropped this time is Ramesh Jigajinagi from Bijapur, a SC reserved constituency, for poor performance.

In Modi’s first innings, Karnataka had two Cabinet ministers — not counting Sitharaman who is a Rajya Sabha member from the state but hails from Tamil Nadu — and an MoS.

On that score, the state BJP should not be too unhappy although there is some resentment outside party circles about Sitharaman being counted in the Karnataka quota.

Also read: The big names of 2014 who failed to make it to Modi’s new govt

Telangana tussle

In Telangana, where the BJP did extremely well to win four seats, the race for a ministerial berth was between G. Kishan Reddy from Secunderabad and Arvind Dharmapuri from Nizamabad. Reddy was favoured against Dharmapuri even if he caused a huge upset by defeating K. Kavitha, daughter of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.

Kishan Reddy, a former Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha president, has been one of the stalwarts of the BJP in Telangana along with Bandaru Dattatreya who was an MoS in Modi’s first innings. Dattatreya did not contest this time.

No choice in Kerala

In Kerala, where the BJP failed to open its account despite much expectations in the wake of the Sabarimala controversy, the prime minister didn’t have a single Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha member to choose from.

So he dropped K.J. Alphons, an MoS in the previous government, and replaced him with V. Muraleedharan, a Rajya Sabha member from Maharashtra and a former Kerala party chief.

Kerala is one state where the BJP sees a big opportunity to emerge as a strong alternative to the Left and the Congress. Muraleedharan from the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad stable is seen as an effective organisational man and considered close to BJP president Amit Shah. His selection is a snub to state party chief P.S. Sreedharan Pillai who is at loggerheads with Muraleedharan.

Snub to Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh

The biggest disappointment, though, was for Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh where none found place in the Union council of ministers.

In Tamil Nadu, only the AIADMK’s Raveendranath Kumar, son of deputy chief minister O. Panneerselvam, was elected to the Lok Sabha. It was speculated that either him or Rajya Sabha member R. Vaithilingam would make the cut. Chief Minister E. Palanisamy wanted the latter while his deputy lobbied for his son.

In the end, Modi decided that no one would be chosen, at least till the first expansion — whenever that happens.

Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh are important states for them to not have any representation in the Union cabinet and Modi cannot afford to ignore the anomaly for long, especially if he has to overcome the perception that the BJP is only a Hindi heartland party.

Also read: UP gets biggest slice of Modi ministries, followed by Maharashtra & Bihar

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