Express News Service
NEW DELHI/LUCKNOW : Electoral imperatives as well as the BJP’s desire to shed its image as a primarily upper-caste party appeared to weigh heavy in Wednesday’s Cabinet reshuffle as Prime Minister Narendra Modi inducted several faces belonging to the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and OBC communities.
Given that non-Yadav OBC and non-Jatav Scheduled Castes had played a significant role in the BJP winning 312 of Uttar Pradesh’s 403 Assembly seats in 2017, Wednesday’s Cabinet expansion kept in mind the caste arithmetic of the state.
The state also bagged the maximum number of berths with seven of its MPs taking the oath. Of them, six are either from OBCs or Scheduled Caste. Pankaj Chaudhary and Anupriya Patel belong to the Kurmi community, categorised as OBCs. B L Verma is a Lodh-Rajput, also an OBC. Kaushal Kishore, an eloquent MP considered close to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, belongs to the OBC Pasi caste.