India’s Modi unveils BJP-dominated cabinet. Will his allies demand more ministerial roles?

Modi has kept his team of Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Foreign Minister S Jaishankar – all four ministers from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be part of the powerful Cabinet Committee on Security headed by the prime minister.

Among them are Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Shivraj Singh, a former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, and Health Minister J.P. Nadda, who is BJP’s president.

“The BJP has been very effective in terms of negotiations and ensuring the cabinet is a body which would ensure a continuity with the previous regime,” said Sandeep Shastri, director of academics at Nitte Education and national coordinator of Lok Niti Network, which studies elections.

“If you look at the cabinet, 25 out of 30 cabinet ministers belong to the BJP,” he said.

The BJP also dominates the key positions in the 70-strong ministerial council, leaving its allies to hold relatively less important positions such as food processing, Panchayati Raj, which oversees village councils, medium and small-scale industries and civil aviation.

The cabinet selection has surprised observers as the BJP is dependent on allies in the National Democratic Alliance, particularly Telugu Desam Party and Janata Dal (United), to attain most at least 272 seats in the lower house of parliament to form the government.

The BJP won only 240 seats in the recent election, far short of its target of 370 seats and the 303 seats it attained in 2019.

Modi likely negotiated hard with the Telugu Desam Party and Janata Dal (United) to support them in their respective Andhra Pradesh and Bihar states, Shastri said.

“I think the agreement within the coalition is that these two major coalition