Ministerial berths: It's bonanza for Southern states

It is a bonanza for four southern states, which together garnered exactly one third of the total 78 ministerial berths in the Manmohan Singh ministry.

The states -- Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh -- which sent 82 UPA MPs to the Lok Sabha, got 26 ministers, including 11 in the Cabinet rank in the new team.

Tamil Nadu, which sent 27 UPA MPs, topped the list with 10 ministers that included P Chidambaram and G K Vasan of Congress and DMK's Dayanidhi Maran, M Azhagiri and A Raja.

Kerala and Karnataka followed Tamil Nadu with six ministers each while Andhra Pradesh is represented by four ministers. The lone MP from Pondicherry, V Narayanaswamy, was included as a Minister of State.

Kerala was rewarded with six ministers for sending 16 UPA MPs. The Ministers from Kerala included A K Antony, Vayalar Ravi, Shashi Tharoor, Mullapally Ramachandran, K V Thomas (all Congress) and E Ahamed (Muslim League).

Last time, no UPA MPs won from Kerala, but this time 16 were elected. Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh were a study in contrast in the number of ministers.

The BJP-ruled Karnataka sent only six UPA MPs but it managed to get six ministers while while Andhra, which recorded a spectacular victory by winning 33 seats, got only four ministers.

Those who won Singh's trust from the state included S M Krishna, Veerappa Moily, Mallikarjun Kharge while from Andhra, S Jaipal Reddy was among the ministers.