NWhile states like UP, Maharashtra, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal seem to rule the Council of Ministers; the North-East and, the Tribal States such as Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand seem to have negligible representation. Over the years, there hasn’t been much improvement in the numbers of ministers in the cabinet. The complete North-East sends 26 MPs to the Lok Sabha from 8 states and, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand send 11 and 14 MPs respectively, while UP in itself has 80 MPs in the Lok Sabha. While the demographics of the state and the numbers surely play a part in its representation the Union Council, it shouldn’t be the only parameter.
If we look at the data from 1999-2019 comparing the ministry of Vajpayee, Singh and Modi the representation North-East and Tribal States is somewhere the same. The 13th Lok Sabha Council had TN Chaoba as the MoS for the Ministry of Youth and Sports Affairs as the sole representative from North-East, Babulal Marandi and Rameshlal Bais served that purpose for Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, respectively.
The 14th and 15th Lok Sabha under the leadership of Manmohan Singh saw a rise in the representation, but it wasn’t much. Some of the prominent faces of that time were, Agatha Sangma, hailing from Tura constituency, Minister of State for Rural Development, Paban Singh Ghatowar, MoS for Ministry of development of North-East and Ministry of Parliament, Rameshwar Oraon, Lohardaga Jharkhand as MoS Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Chandra Das Mahant, Korba Chhattisgarh, MoS Ministry of Agriculture and Food Processing Industries, along with others. The 15th Lok Sabha saw 3 MPs from Assam, 2 from Meghalaya and 1 from Chhattisgarh as a part of the Council of Ministers.
Under the Modi’s Union Council of Ministers Kiren Rijju, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs from Arunachal Pradesh and Sarbananda Sonowal, MoS for Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs from Lakhimpur, Assam, have become the face of North-East representation in the Cabinet. Vishnudeo Sai. MoS for Ministry of Steel and Mines from Raipur, Chhattisgarh and Sudharshan Bhagat, MoS for Ministry of Tribal Affairs from Lohardaga, Jharkhand are serving the same purpose for the States with high tribal population.
Even though the representation is increasing in numbers and members such as Kiren Rijju, Astha Sangma or Babulal Marandi have been vocal members of the Cabinet for the past and doing the same even now, there’s a lot more required for the adequate representations of the states which are not the part of the major representation the Lower-House.