Publication

This paper provides an overview of Indian Prime Minister Modi’s November 9, 2014 expansion of his Cabinet. The author explains that the expansion brings the number of members of the Cabinet to 66, a number still smaller than former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Cabinet. The author suggests a reason why the numbers could be smaller is that Modi’s party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) does not have to consider the interests of government coalition partners. Indeed, he suggests that the BJP’s allies were given very little consideration in the allocation of Cabinet places, something that could mean that the BJP wishes to contend India’s upcoming state elections on its own.