Ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party failed to clinch a majority of its own in the Lok Sabha elections, the nation’s eyes have been peeled for Narendra Modi to see how the prime minister, used to brutal electoral majorities, responds to the challenge of steering the choppy waters of coalition politics. The first test, pundits argued, would be the distribution of the fishes and loaves of office. The disbursal of the ministerial posts would suggest that Mr Modi remains unwilling to offer much leeway to the BJP’s allies even though his government’s survival depends on them. The BJP has decided to retain the Big Four posts — defence, home, finance and external affairs — for tried-and-tested lieutenants of the party. Only 11 members of Parliament from the BJP’s allies made the cut to Mr Modi’s ministry: among these, five — a handful — have been inducted into the cabinet. All that the Telugu Desam Party has to show for its support to the BJP is the high-profile civil aviation ministry: were the whispers of the TDP jockeying for the Speaker’s post unsubstantiated then? Similarly, the Janata Dal (United), another party propping up Mr Modi’s government, had apparently been eyeing the railways among other ministries: it has to make do with a clutch of feather-weight ministries — for now. The Shiv Sena, the third-highest contributor to the National Democratic Alliance’s electoral kitty, has got a raw deal too.

The choice of faces in Mr Modi’s cabinet is being seen as the prime minister’s endorsement of continuity and stability. It is more than that. First, this is an unambiguous signal to the NDA’s partners that the BJP would not cede critical space within the coalition, notwithstanding its dependence on the allies. Second, the berths have also been allotted with the forthcoming assembly elections in mind. One example would suffice as proof. The BJP is eyeing to wrest Bihar; that explains Bihar’s sizeable share in ministerial representation. Further changes cannot be ruled out though. Some of the BJP’s associates — the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party’s Ajit Pawar faction — have already begun to grumble about the allocations. It remains to be seen whether Mr Modi would turn his pious words on coalition dharma into deed. The game, as they say, is on.