BJP allies get more space in Modi govt 3.0; 11 ministers from NDA partners

New Delhi: BJP's NDA partners have got five cabinet ministerial berths in the third term of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as against none in the outgoing government, given the party's dependence on allies for a majority in the Lok Sabha. 

While the outgoing council of ministers had two ministers of state from BJP's allies -- Anupriya Patel of the Apna Dal (S) and Ramdas Athawale of the RPI(A) -- this time, there are two ministers of states with independent charge and four ministers of state (MoS).

H D Kumaraswamy of the Janata Dal (Secular), Jitan Ram Manjhi of the Hindustani Awam Morcha, Rajiv Ranjan alias Lalan Singh of the Janata Dal (United), Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu of the Telugu Desam Party and Chirag Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) took oath as cabinet ministers on Sunday at a ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. 

Prataprao Jadhav of the Shiv Sena and Jayant Chaudhary of the Rashtriya Lok Dal took oath as MoS with independent charge. There were no MoS with independent charge from BJP's allies in the second Narendra Modi government. 

While Athawale and Patel have been retained as ministers of state, new representatives from allies among junior ministers include Ramnath Thakur of the Janata Dal (United) and Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani of the Telugu Desam Party.

The BJP had absolute majority in the previous two terms -- the 16th and 17th Lok Sabhas -- which reflected in the council of ministers with only a few alliance partners being given space.

In the first Modi cabinet, formed after the BJP came to power in 2014 with 282 seats in the Lok Sabha, four cabinet berths went to allies. 

Ram Vilas Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party was given the consumer affairs ministry, Ashok Gajpati Raju of the Telugu Desam Party got the civil aviation ministry, Harsimrat Kaur Badal of the Shiromani Akali Dal became the food processing minister and Anant Geete of the Shiv Sena was the heavy industries and public enterprises minister. 

Four MoS positions had also gone to BJP allies in the first Modi government, including in the HRD ministry for Rashtriya Lok Samta Party leader Upendra Kushwaha. Telugu Desam Party's YS Chowdhury became MoS in the science and earth sciences ministries in November 2014. 

Ram Das Athawale of the RPI (S) became MoS in the social justice ministry and Patel of the Apna Dal (S) MoS in the health ministry in the July 2016 reshuffle in the council of ministers.

Among them, the two ministers from the Telugu Desam Party resigned in March 2018 over their party's demand to give special status to Andhra Pradesh.

A week later, the Telugu Desam Party quit the NDA. In December 2018, Kushwaha resigned from the ministry and left the alliance, accusing Modi of not fulfilling his election promises for Bihar.

In the second Modi government, when the BJP came back to the Lok Sabha with an improved tally of 303, all together seven leaders from allied parties served in different ministerial positions over its five year tenure. 

Soon after winning, it gave ministerial berths to allies such as the Lok Janshakti Party, Shiv Sena and the Shiromani Akali Dal.  Paswan was given the consumer affairs ministry, a position that he held till his death in October 2020. 

Harsimrat Badal was again given the charge of the food processing Ministry, which she held till September 2020, when she resigned in view of the farmers' protest. The Shiromani Akali Dal later left the alliance.

Arvind Savant of the Shiv Sena was made the heavy industries and public enterprises minister, but he resigned in November 2019 amid an ongoing power tussle between the BJP and his party following 2019 Maharashtra assembly elections.

As the Lok Janshakti Party split in two factions after Ram Vilas Paswan's death, Pashupati Paras, his brother, was given the food processing ministry in July 2021. He resigned just ahead of the 2024 general elections as the BJP came to a seat-sharing agreement with LJP (RV), the faction led by Ram Vilas's son Chirag Paswan. 

Ramchandra Prasad of the Janata Dal (United) was made the minister for steel in July 2021, and continued on the post till 6 July 2022. 

In the second Modi cabinet, Athawale held the post of MoS Social Justice and Patel was the MoS Commerce.