Patna, May 20
Drubbing of the Congress and its old allies - the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) - at the hands of the NDA in the just-concluded Lok Sabha polls in Bihar is likely to cost the state dearly in terms of its presence in the Union Cabinet. Bihar, in all likelihood, will have the lowest ever presence in the next government at the Centre in the last one decade.

Of the 10 Union ministers from this state, only three could return to Parliament. Two are from the RJD - Lalu Yadav (Minister of Railways) and Minister of Rural Development Raghuvansh Prasad Singh. The lone Congress minister to make a come back is Meira Kumar.

As the RJD is out of the UPA for the moment and the Congress had just two MPs from this state, the only hopeful minister in the new Union Cabinet is Meira Kumar. Of the two Independent MPs from Bihar, Banka MP Digvijay Singh is also a probable minister. Having past experience of being a Union Minister in the Chandrashekhar government and the Vajpayee government, Singh may be given a key portfolio to mark the presence of Bihar in the present government.

The biggest disappointment for Bihar in terms of its representation in the Union Cabinet has been the defeat of LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan in this election. Paswan had become a sort of permanent minister from Bihar in Delhi by registering his presence in all the Union Cabinets since 1996. Prior to that, he was an important Cabinet colleague of the then Prime Minister VP Singh (1989-90).

While there were 10 ministers from Bihar in the outgoing Union Cabinet constituted after the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, there were eight ministers from this state in the NDA government formed in 1999.

This kind of representation is unimaginable now. The state is also unlikely to get key portfolios like the railways this time. Notably. There have been seven Railway Ministers from Bihar from 1956 to 1962 when Jagjivan Ram became the first Railway Minister from this state.

With Paswan and his party out of the Lok Sabha and Lalu with his three MPs out of the UPA, now the representation of Bihar is bound to be reduced to a much lower level and key portfolios are also unlikely to come to the ministers from the state.