Surprisingly, of the 17 MPs from the Janata Dal (U) who got elected to the Lok Sabha this time, four (George Fernandes, Ram Bilas Paswan, Nitish Kumar and Sharad Yadav) are cabinet rank minister while one (Digvijay Singh) has been made a minister of state. Only Yashwant Sinha has been given a cabinet berth from Bihar despite the BJP having sent 23 MPs from the state.

"How can you justify four cabinet berths to JD(U) which has 17 MPs in Lok Sabha and just one to BJP which has 23. It is a fact that this ministry is a jumbo-sized one. Do not forget that Laloo is down but not out," a BJP leader in Bihar told the The Financial Express. He added that even the star campaigner for the BJP and Rajya Sabha MP, Shatrughan Sinha, who played a pivotal role in the election process to help BJP garner more votes, was left out. "You just cannot take him for a ride. Such attitude towards Bihar won't work as the state assembly elections are not too far," he emphasised. Assembly polls in Bihar will take place early next year.

However, despite the dropping of Sikandar Bakht from the Cabinet, the prime minister managed to induct the only Muslim BJP MP in the parliament, Syed Shanawaz Hussain, who was elected from Kishanganj. A first-time MP, Hussain defeated the Rashtriya Janata Dal candidate and former Union minister Md. Taslimuddin to reach Lok Sabha.