NEW DELHI, March 21: The BJP may have appeared generous when it accommodated its allies in the two-tier ministry on Thursday. But it quietly applied the principle of checks-and-balances in selecting its own ministers from the southern States, keeping in mind its long-term political interests.This has two missions: that the minister should contribute to the growth of the party in his State and that he should be effective enough to counter-balance the influence of the minister from the alliance.The most glaring example is the elevation of Ananth Kumar, a second-term MP from Karnataka to Cabinet rank in charge of the civil aviation ministry. A former leader of the ABVP, Kumar's elevation was largely due to his contribution to strengthening the party in his State to the extent that it became the main Opposition in the Assembly for the first time in 1995.The party also sees in Kumar enough potential to counter the popularity of Commerce Minister and Lok Shakti leader Ramakrishna Hegde, a BJP functionarysaid.The ministry has one more member from Karnataka, Babu Gowda Patil, who belongs to the Lingayat community that supported the BJP massively this time.Interestingly, Karnataka is not the only southern State which the BJP sees as a potential growth zone and, therefore, has taken enough precaution in sending the right signals there. From Andhra Pradesh, it has included only the State party chief D Dattatreya (an OBC) as a minister of State. The BJP still seems awaiting the decision of the TDP to its invitation.BJP's National General Secretary N Venkiah Naidu was also left out in the process. ``Yes, my choice is organisational work. Left to myself, I would like to work for the party. But it is for the Prime Minister and the party to decide where they want to use me,'' Naidu told The Indian Express. indicating that the question of his inclusion in the Cabinet after the TDP decision is still open. Even in Tamil Nadu where the BJP got only three of the 39 seats, largely with the electoralsupport of the AIADMK, it seems to be moving cautiously building a direct rapport with smaller allies like MDMK and PMK and V K Ramamurthy on one side, and massaging Jayalalitha's ego for the time being on the other.That is why it elevated R Kumaramangalam, a BJP MP to Cabinet rank and admitted all Jaya's nominees to the Cabinet.
