BJP rewards new entrants Birender Singh, Ram Kirpal Yadav

The first expansion of the Narendra Modi ministry Sunday saw induction of two influential leaders - Birender Singh and Ram Kirpal Yadav - who had joined the BJP after being miffed with their own parties.

Inducted as a cabinet minister, Birender Singh, who served the Congress in senior positions including that of general secretary, had been a contender for the post of chief minister of Haryana where the party had won twice in 2004 and 2009.

Sources said that Birender Singh was not only unhappy with the of inner working of the party in Haryana during last few years of Bhupinder Singh Hooda government, but had felt betrayed when the Congress leadership declined to make him a union minister at the last minute during a reshuffle in 2013.

Sources close to Birender Singh said that his name had been sent to the Rashtrapati Bhavan by the Congress leadership for induction in the UPA government but it was dropped at the last minute.

Birender Singh joined the Bharatiya Janata Party before the assembly elections to Haryana. He belongs to the Jat community which sizeable presence in poll-bound Delhi, Rajasthan and western Uttar Pradesh apart from Haryana.

Ram Kirpal Yadav, who had been in the Rashtriya Janata Dal, left the party after being denied a ticket for the 2014 general elections by party chief Lalu Prasad.

BJP leaders hoped that Yadav's induction as a minister of state will help the party cut into support base of Lalu Prasad.

"The message (of the induction) is also that those who come to the party and work hard will be rewarded," a BJP leader said.