More hands to help Modi: Expansion cuts across caste & class

Narendra Modi's new team includes a former cabinet colleague from his days as Gujarat CM, an academic and a sadhvi. Mayank Mishra reports

A religious leader and a former academic, members of powerful or backward castes, all found a place in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's expanded council of ministers on Sunday.

Modi's cabinet colleague from his days as the chief minister of Gujarat, Mohanbhai Kundariya, was inducted. A veteran politician from the Patel community, Kundariya has been a five-time MLA from Tankara in Rajkot district. At present, he is the Rajkot MP.

All you need to know about Modi's new ministers

Then there is Ram Shankar Katheria, a two-time MP from Agra and overseeing Bharatiya Janata Party's affairs in Punjab. An academic, he has been a part of BJP's anti-corruption campaign.

The induction of Katheria, along with Vijay Sampla, seems to be aimed at consolidating BJP's growing social base among the Dalits.

Sampla, a Dalit leader representing Punjab's Hoshiarpur (reserved) constituency, grew up in acute poverty and learnt a plumber's trade. Then, he went to Saudi Arabia, where he learnt the hardware business. He won from his constituency on a wafer-thin margin of 124 votes.

There are reports the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh pushed for his inclusion in the council of ministers. It is reported to have handled Sampla's Lok Sabha campaign as well.

Incidentally, BJP bagged more Dalit votes in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections than the Bahujan Samaj Party.

The party's spectacular show in the general elections in Uttar Pradesh, and the more recent assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana, is attributed partly to its growing appeal among Dalits.

The current expansion has also cut across class lines.

One of the new members of the expanded Cabinet is Sanwar Lal Jat, a member of Parliament (MP) from Ajmer. He holds a doctoral degree in commerce and was a professor in Rajasthan University before joining politics.

He made a successful electoral debut in 1990 and rewon the Assembly elections in 1993, 1998 and 2003. He served as irrigation minister in 2003-08 and joined the Vasundhara Raje cabinet again in 2013, holding the charge of irrigation and water resources. He entered the 16th Lok Sabha by defeating former Union minister Sachin Pilot.

Jat is the second member from Rajasthan to have made the council of ministers. BJP won all 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

The former academic will have Niranjan Jyoti, Fatehpur MP, as a ministry peer. Known for her sermons replete with references to Hindu scriptures and hymns, the saffron-clad Sadhvi belongs to the Other Backward Classes.

Her elevation is seen as part of BJP's plan to replicate its Lok Sabha election success in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, scheduled in 2017. The 47-year-old sadhvi had won the Assembly elections from Hamirpur in 2012.