NEW DELHI, July 8: In a first, the Northeastern states were awarded as many as five berths in the Union Council of Ministers including two Cabinet berths, but the allies including NPP, who are part of NDA, have been totally ignored even after the much-delayed reshuffle.
Five names from the North East – Kiren Rijiju (Arunachal), Sarbananda Sonowal and Rameswar Teli (both from Assam), Pratima Bhowmick (Tripura), and Rajkumar Ranjan Singh (Manipur) — made it to the Ministry. But all of them belong to BJP and none from allies.
The BJP is a constituent of the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP)-headed ruling coalition in Nagaland and National People’s Party (NPP)-led government in Meghalaya and Mizo National Front (MNF) in Mizoram. Each of these parties, albeit small, has MPs and even former Union Ministers like Agatha Sangma who could have been included.
MNF has two MPs – C Lalrosanga and K Vanlalvena – while NDPP and NPP have one each – Tokheho Yepthomi and Agatha, respectively.
Despite being BJP allies, these regional parties were not considered for representation in the Modi government.
WR Kharlukhi, who is NPP’s Meghalaya unit chief, said the selection of candidates for ministerial berths was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s prerogative. Khalukhi himself is an MP from Rajya Sabha.
Even during Modi’s first term, the allies from the North East were not given any chance. Even veterans like Purno A Sangma and Neiphiu Rio, who were senior MPs, never got a chance to become ministers under the Modi administration.
Analysts say that BJP being a cadre-based party plays long innings and wants to come back to power on its own from all over the country. Taking help of small parties in the North East is compulsion for the BJP to make the region “Congress-mukt”, which it did.
