Non-BJP ministers attend more Cabinet meetings than BJP members

While on one hand ministers of Congress-led UPA are refusing to come down to Delhi, the Modi government is enjoying continuous support from the Non-BJP ministers.

ET revealed some cabinet records and came up with the result that the non-BJP ministers are actively involved in decision-making processes of the government and regularly attend Cabinet meetings.

For example, Civil aviation minister and AG Raju (from Telugu Desam Party) has attended the most number of meetings (80 out of 84), starting from May 2014 till February 2016. This is more than the number of meetings attended by BJP ministers TC Gehlot (minister of Social justice, who attended 78) and DV Sadananda Gowda (Law minister, who attended 76).

Under the RTI act, ET accessed Cabinet meeting records from May 2014 till February 2016, where it found that three of the four ministers hailing from BJP's regional allies figure in the top 10 when it comes to their attendance.

Food minister Ram Vilas Paswan (belonging to Lok Janshakti Party) is at number eight, Harsimrat Kaur Badal (Shiromani Akali Dal) is at number nine and heavy industries minister Anant Geete (Shiv Sena) is at number 11.

Talking of the worst attendees, we have Health Minister JP Nadda, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and Rural Development Minister Birender Singh.

As far as women ministers are concerned, the first seven months of the government saw women ministers outdoing their male counterparts. Apparently, HRD minister Smriti Irani and Water Resources Minister Uma Bharati did not miss a single Cabinet meeting.

However, now that the government has been in power for 20 months, the women ministers have relaxed, and Irani has slipped down to the fourth position.

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