2 Vokkaligas, 1 Lingayat from Karnataka make it to Centre
BJP has attempted to strike a caste and regional balance in the Union Council of Ministers while retaining experienced ministers such as Nirmala Sitharaman and Pralhad Joshi from Karnataka though they don't represent a dominant or politically influential community.
As for Kerala, the coastal state will have a minister in Malayalam superstar Suresh Gopi as the BJP managed to win one Lok Sabha seat from the state that alternated between the LDF and UDF. Besides Joshi (Dharwad) and Sitharaman (RS), MoS Shoba Karandlaje has also retained her position. JDS state president HD Kumaraswamy (Mandya) and V Somanna (MoS) are the new faces and also first time ministers at the Centre.
That Kumaraswamy, a former CM, would make it to the Cabinet was on expected lines as his party has two MPs and his family has another in Dr CN Manjunath who won from Bengaluru Rural on the BJP symbol. In the previous BJP-led NDA government, six ministers were from Karnataka, including Rajeev Chandrashekhar, A Narayanaswamy and Bhagwant Khuba. Karnataka had 25 BJP MPs and another MP backed by the party in the previous Lok Sabha, but the same has now dropped to 17 members.
While Kumaraswamy and Karandlaje are Vokkaligas, the second largest community in Karnataka, Joshi and Sitharaman are Brahmins. The BJP has inducted Somanna, a first-time MP from Tumakuru, who hails from the state's dominant Lingayat community.
Somanna, as a junior minister, was indeed a surprise pick, but BJP sources say the party leadership considered his sacrifice in moving from his safe assembly seat in Bengaluru to fight from two difficult seats, one against chief minister Siddaramaiah.
