Several states going to the polls this year and the next, particularly Bihar, have received substantial representation in the third Narendra Modi government that was sworn in on Sunday evening.

Bihar, where Assembly elections are due towards 2025-end, has got eight ministers — four from the BJP and four from its allies. The NDA won 30 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in the eastern state.

Although the BJP and the JDU bagged 12 seats each in Bihar, the saffron party has given just two ministry slots to the ally while allotting four to itself. The move suggests careful planning to gain dominance in the state, currently ruled by JDU boss Nitish Kumar.

The Bihar ministers from the BJP include Giriraj Singh and Nityanand Rai, who were part of the previous Modi government too, while Raj Bhushan Choudhary and Satish Dubey are surprise entrants.

Choudhary is from the extremely backward Nishad caste and won from Muzaffarpur. Dubey, a Brahmin and a Rajya Sabha member, had won from Valmikinagar in 2014
but the BJP later handed the seat over to the JDU. In 2014, the BJP and the JDU were
adversaries.

The BJP’s picks reflect a careful mix of castes, with two upper castes (Giriraj and Dubey), an OBC (Rai) and an EBC (Choudhary).

The BJP’s Number Two, Amit Shah, had while campaigning for Rai (a Yadav), promised to make him a “bahut bada admi (very big man)” if the voters elected him. Rai was Shah’s junior in the home ministry in the previous government, and many in the BJP see him as Shah’s choice for future Bihar chief minister.

One of the ministers from the JDU is Rajiv Ranjan Singh aka Lalan Singh, who was replaced as party boss just before Nitish dumped the RJD-Congress to realign
with the BJP. The other is Ramnath Thakur, an EBC and son of the late socialist icon Karpoori Thakur who was recently awarded a posthumous Bharat Ratna.

The other two ministers from Bihar are Dalit leaders Chirag Paswan of the LJP (Ram Vilas) — which won five seats — and former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi of the Hindustani Awam Morcha.

BJP managers said that allies with even one seat like Manjhi were inducted into the government with an eye on the Bihar polls, where the NDA is likely to face a strong challenge from the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan.

Maharashtra

After failing to gain a majority of its own in the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP’s immediate challenges include the Assembly polls later this year in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand. The BJP now rules Haryana directly and Maharashtra indirectly.

Maharashtra, whose share of 48 Lok Sabha seats is the second-largest after Uttar Pradesh (80), has got five ministers including BJP heavyweight Nitin Gadkari. Of the five berths, the BJP has kept two and given one each to allies Shiv Sena and the Republican Party of India.

A fifth — a junior minister’s (independent charge) — was said to have been allotted to another ally, Ajit Pawar’s NCP. But the party’s nominee for government — Praful Patel — did not turn up to accept a job he apparently deemed unworthy of his status.

Apart from Gadkari, the BJP has picked the young and prominent OBC face, Raksha Khadse, 37, from north Maharashtra. Sources said the three-term MP would be rewarded with a key portfolio.

The OBCs form a key vote base for the BJP in Maharashtra, and have become all the more crucial for the party following the Maratha quota agitation, one of the reasons behind the NDA’s poor showing in the state (17 seats out of 48).

Haryana

Haryana, where the BJP won just five seats — after having swept all 10 in 2019 — has been rewarded with a disproportionate share of three ministerial berths.

Former BJP chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who won from Karnal, is one of the picks. The other two are Rao Inderjit Singh, Gurugram MP who was part of the previous ministry, and Krishna Pal Gurjar. All three are from the BJP.

Jharkhand

The tribal state, currently ruled by a JMM-led alliance, has got three ministers — two from the BJP and one from ally All Jharkhand Students Union.

No tribal leader from the state has, however, found a place in the government, with the BJP having lost from almost all the reserved Scheduled Tribe seats in the state. Among the losers was the tribal affairs minister in the previous government, Arjun Munda.

Delhi

Delhi, which votes early next year and has been ruled by the AAP for the past three terms, saw first-time MPs Harsh Malhotra (East Delhi) and Kamaljeet Sehrawat (West Delhi) inducted.