NARENDRA MODI, India’s can-do prime minister, swept to victory two years ago promising “minimum government with maximum governance”. His incoming team boasted just 45 ministers and ministers of state, compared with the unwieldy 77-person crew fielded by the previous government. But on July 5th, following his second reshuffle since taking office, Mr Modi’s council of ministers ballooned to an even wobblier 78.

Running such a sprawling, untidy republic does require a lot of people. Only 27 of Mr Modi’s ministers will actually sit with him in cabinet meetings. The other 50 are junior ministers, tied to specific portfolios. Government loyalists say the extra hands will make it easier to carry out the prime minister’s ambitious reform agenda. Many among India’s noisy chattering classes fear the opposite is true.

Elections loom next year in several crucial states. These include the biggest, Uttar Pradesh, with some 200m people, as well as prosperous Punjab and Mr Modi’s home state of Gujarat. Last year his Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) bombed at the polls in Bihar, a state famed for convoluted politics based on group affiliations such as caste and religion. That made Amit Shah, the party’s grizzled president and Mr Modi’s closest henchman, determined to widen the BJP’s appeal well beyond its base among higher-caste Hindus. The party has made special efforts to woo Dalits, or “untouchables”, who make up a crucial bloc of voters in Uttar Pradesh.

Small wonder that among 19 newly minted ministers, ten are from what India officially classifies as “backward” castes, and three are from Uttar Pradesh. Controversial ministers were moved to less visible posts, and technocrats replaced by figures with more populist appeal. The minister of state for finance, Jayant Sinha, an outspoken former investment banker, will now be a junior minister for civil aviation. Two BJP stalwarts with little background in finance will share his old post.

With three years to go before a general election, Mr Modi’s choice raises questions about how much he will get done. An editorial in Mint, a financial daily, sniffed: “Jumbo cabinets are not exactly the optimal solution to governance challenges.”