West Bengal, Kerala, Uttarakhand, HP unrepresented in Modi Team

New Delhi, May 26: The new Narendra Modi government which took over today does not have any representation from several states like West Bengal, Kerala, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and some from the Northeast.

Only Sarbananda Sonowal of Assam and Kiren Rijiju of Arunachal Pradesh, both top BJP leaders from the respective states, represent the Northeast in the Council of Ministers.

Though there was some talk of inclusion of either of the two BJP MPs from West Bengal -- noted singer Babul Supriyo or S S Ahluwalia, their names did not figure on the list of ministers. While Supriyo was elected from Asansol, Ahluwalia won from Darjeeling.

BJP did not win any seat in Kerala though its candidate in Thiruvananthapuram, O Rajagopal, gave a tough fight to former Union Minister Sashi Tharoor bringing down his victory margin from 99,998 votes in 2009 to a mere 14,501 this time.

There is was no representation in the ministerial council from Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand as well although BJP swept all the Lok Sabha seats in the two states in the general elections.

In the Northeast, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Manipur, Sikkim and Tripura also remained unrepresented in the Council of Ministers.

PTI