UP, Maha get lion's share in Union Cabinet

New Delhi, May 26:

, where BJP's stunning performance in Lok Sabha elections helped it come to power on its own, has got the lion's share of nine members in the 46-member council of ministers which was sworn in today.

BJP bagged 73 out of 80 seats along with its ally Apna Dal in the key battleground state and saw the rout of main regional parties such as BSP and ruling Samajwadi Party. Leading the pack of members from UP is Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself who won the election from Varanasi.

Apart from the Prime Minister, the cabinet has four more party heavyweights--BJP President Rajnath Singh who won from Lucknow, Uma Bharti from Jhansi, Kalraj Mishra from Deoria and Maneka Gandhi from Pilibhit.

The state has also got representation in the form of two Ministers of State (independent charge)--former army chief V K Singh (Ghaziabad) and Santosh Gangwar from Bareilly. The cabinet also got representation from western UP where riots had hit Muzaffarnagar last year and was believed to have been caused polarisation with Muzaffarnagar MP Sanjiv Kumar Baliyan taking oath as a Minister of State.

Eastern UP got its presence registered with Ghazipur MP Manoj Sinha also taking oath as Minister of State. In terms of representation, Maharashtra takes the second place with former party chief Nitin Gadkari, senior leaders Gopinath Munde and Anant Geete (Shiv Sena) being inducted as cabinet ministers while Prakash Javadekar and Piyush Goel getting Ministers of State (Independent Charge) and Rao Saheb Danve as a Minister of State.

In Congress-NCP-ruled Maharashtra, BJP-Sena alliance won 42 out of 48 Lok Sabha seats. Assembly polls in the state are due by October.

PTI