The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been making an all-out effort to make its way into Southern Indian states for some time now.
In line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s southern push, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has reaffirmed its ‘Focus South’ by including 13 ministers into his Union council from the five southern states.
Apart from the two of the Big 4 core ministries of finance and foreign affairs, ministers from the southern states have also bagged the Cabinet posts of aviation and heavy industries.
Irrespective of its electoral tally in the five southern states, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, PM Modi has inducted as many as 13 ministers into the Modi 3.0 from these states.
While the NDA lost 54 seats in the Hindi heartland, it managed to bag 51 out of the 129 Lok Sabha seats in South India. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the NDA won 30 seats in the southern states. In that election, the JDS and the TDP weren’t part of the NDA.
Kerela’s Thrissur made history as Suresh Gopi won the seat to become the first BJP MP from the state. On the other hand, in Tamil Nadu, the saffron party drew a blank after a spirited campaign spearheaded by Annamalai.
In Karnataka, one of the BJP strongholds in the South, although the BJP-JD(S) combine managed to win 17 seats, the BJP could not repeat its 2019 electoral performance.
In the Modi 3.0, four ministers have been included from Karnataka, including Janata Dal (Secular) leader HD Kumaraswamy. The BJP’s Pralhad Joshi has been named the minister for Consumer affairs and renewable energies. V Somanna and Shobha Karandlaje have also been given ministerial berths.
In Andhra Pradesh, the BJP, Telugu Desam Party and JanaSena Party alliance has shown a stellar performance. The Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP won 16 out of 25 Lok Sabha seats. The BJP has won three seats, while Pawan Kalyan’s JanaSena Party has won two seats.
Three ministers from Andhra Pradesh have been given a place in the Modi 3.0. Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu, as a Cabinet minister, will take charge of the important Civil Aviation Ministry. TDP’s Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar and BJP’s Bhupathiraju Srinivasa Varma are named Ministers of State.
From Telangana, where the BJP won 8 seats out of 17 Lok Sabha seats, Modi 3.0 will have two ministers. While G Kishan Reddy will head the Ministries of Coals and Mines, Bandi Sanjay Kumar has been named the Minister of State for Home Affairs.
Although the BJP, led by Tamil Nadu’s party president K Annamalai, could not open its account, key Cabinet ministries like External Affairs and Finance have been retained by Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar, respectively, both of whom hail from the southern state. Rajya Sabha MP L Murugan has been inducted as the Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs.
From Kerala, actor-politician Suresh Gopi has been handed over the ministries of Tourism and Petroleum as an MoS, while George Kurian, the BJP member from the 1980s, has been named the Minister of State for minority affairs, fisheries, animal husbandry and dairying.
The allocation of portfolios shows that the BJP has kept its focus on South intact, and this is important as it tries to destroy the narrative of it being just a North and West party.