Rajnath Singh continues to look after home and Sushma Swaraj continues as minister of external affairs and overseas Indian affairs, Naidu also continues with his three ministries of Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and Parliamentary Affairs.
Jaitley loses defence to newcomer Manohar Parrikar as was widely expected. He now looks after Finance Corporate Affairs, Information & Broadcasting.
Nitin Gadkari, who had five ministries to look after, now has two ministries — Road Transport and Highways and Shipping, being lightened of the other three of Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water and Sanitation, which were additional portfolios given to him after the death of Gopinath Munde in June.
Chaudhary Birender Singh, who quit the Congress ahead of the general elections to join the BJP, and was inducted Sunday is now the new Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Drinking Water and Sanitation minister.
New inductee Suresh Prabhu, who Sunday also quit the Shiv Sena to join the BJP, is the new Railways minister. D.V. Sadananda Gowda was surprisingly divested of the railways portfolio and is now looking after Law and Justice, which was being looked after by Ravi Shankar Prasad. Prasad now has only the Communications and Information Technology ministry.
Another surprise change was of Harsh Vardhan, who has been divested of his health and family welfare ministry and now looks after Science and Technology, Earth Sciences.
BJP leader Jagat Prakash Nadda is the new minister of Health and Family Welfare.
The portfolios of the other cabinet ministers who were sworn in May remains untouched. They are: Uma Bharati – minister of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Najma Heptulla – Minority Affairs minister, Ramvilas Paswan -Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Kalraj Mishra – Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Maneka Sanjay Gandhi – Women and Child Development, Ananthkumar – Chemicals and Fertilizers, Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati Civil Aviation, Anant Geete – Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Harsimrat Kaur Badal Food Processing Industries, Jual Oram – Tribal Affairs, Radha Mohan Singh -Agriculture, Thaawar Chand Gehlot – Social Justice and Empowerment and Smriti Zubin Irani – Human Resource Development.
Narendra Singh Tomar has been divested of the Labour and Employment ministry while retaining Mines and Steel.
Among the Minister of State (MoS) category, the most surprising change has been of Prakash Javadekar, who was earlier MoS Information and Broadcasting (Independent Charge). He is now the MoS Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Independent Charge) and has also been divested of the MoS Parliamentary Affairs ministry.
General V.K. Singh has been divested of the Development of North Eastern Region (Independent Charge) and given Statistics and Programme Implementation (Independent Charge) instead – a ministry taken from Inderjit Singh Rao. Gen. Singh remains MoS for External Affairs and Overseas Indian Affairs.
Inderjit Singh Rao retains his other portfolio of Planning (Independent Charge) and Defence.
Santosh Kumar Gangwar, now looks after only Textiles (Independent Charge). His MoS Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation portfolio has gone to new joinee Sanwar Lal Jat. He has also been divested of the MoS Parliamentary Affairs charge.
Another surprise change in MoS category has been of Shripad Yesso Naik, who is the new AAYUSH (Independent Charge) as well as Health & Family Welfare. He has been divested of MoS Culture (Independent Charge) and Tourism (Independent Charge).
Piyush Goyal continues as MoS of three ministries of Power (Independent Charge), Coal (Independent Charge) and New and Renewable Energy (Independent Charge).
Dr. Jitendra Singh has been lightened of the MoS Science and Technology (Independent Charge) and Earth Sciences (Independent Charge). He is the new MoS Development of North Eastern Region (Independent Charge) and retains the other four important charges of Prime Minister Office, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Department of Atomic Energy and Department of Space.
Nirmala Sitharaman, another heavyweight MoS, retains her Commerce and Industry (Independent Charge) while she has been divested of the additional portfolios of Finance and Corporate Affairs.
The 45-member Modi ministry Sunday added to it four cabinet ministers, three ministers of state with independent charge, and 14 ministers of state (MoS).
Portfolios of the new ministers were announced late Sunday night ahead of the first meeting of the expanded ministry slated for Monday. There was also a reshuffle of portfolios.
The much-anticipated first ministry expansion was marred with ally Shiv Sena calling off participation in the government at the last minute, exacerbating their already strained ties.
Prabhu, who was a minister in the first national Democratic Alliance government, was sworn in after he quit the Shiv Sena and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
In Mumbai, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray described Prabhu’s joining the BJP as “unfortunate” but indicated that Anant Geete, party’s representative in the Modi government, will continue for the time being.
Thackeray put a condition that his party will sit in opposition in Maharashtra if BJP takes support of the Nationalist Congress Party to prove its majority in the state assembly Nov 12.
The Sena at the last minute recalled Anil Desai, who it had nominated for induction in the union ministry. According to reports, Desai arrived in Delhi for the oath-taking ceremony but was ordered to return.
Parrikar, who is widely tipped to get the defence portfolio, was the first to be administered oath by President Pranab Mukherjee at the Durbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan and was followed by Nadda, who is known to be close to Modi and party chief Amit Shah.
Giriraj Singh, 61, who courted controversy with his comment that “those who oppose Narendra Modi should go to Pakistan” and was also booked for the hate speech, got a place as minister of state.
Jayant Sinha, the IIT-Delhi and Harvard-educated MP from Hazaribagh in election-bound Jharkhand, is among the professionals inducted in the ministry as a balancing act to induction of state leaders with caste or community base.
The ministry expansion also signalled BJP’s efforts to consolidate its gains in the states it had done well in the Lok Sabha elections and give representation to various dominant castes and communities to expand its social base in view of the assembly elections over the next few years.
Keeping in mind next year’s elections in Bihar which are crucial for the BJP, the council has three new faces from the state – Rajiv Pratap Rudy (MoS independent charge), Ram Kirpal Yadav and Giriraj Singh (both MoS), all belonging to different and numerically significant communities. Union ministers Ram Vilas Paswan and Ravi Shankar Prasad are also from Bihar.
Uttar Pradesh, another state crucial for the BJP, got four new berths – Mahesh Sharma, a doctor who is the MP from Gautam Buddh Nagar (Noida); Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who is a Rajya Sabha member; Ram Shankar Katheria, the Agra MP; and Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti.
Even with Sunday’s expansion, Modi’s ministry is leaner than those headed by Manmohan Singh. Officials said that Singh’s ministry stood at 78 after its final reshuffle while the previous NDA had expanded even beyond that.
Modi also brought into his ministry the party’s known Muslim face in Naqvi, adding to Najma Heptullah, who is minority affairs minister.
He also added to the representation of women by inducting Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, BJP MP from Fatehpur in Uttar Pradesh, to take their number to eight.
The youngest MP inducted in the ministry Sunday is well-known singer Babul Supriyo Baral, the only face in the ministry from West Bengal where the BJP wants to consolidate after recent gains. The Asansol MP was inducted as a minister of state.
The only NDA ally to get a berth in Sunday’s expansion was Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Rajya Sabha MP, Y.S. Chowdary as MoS.
Apart from Prabhu, the BJP inducted party MP Hansraj Ahir from Maharashtra where the party got success in the recent assembly polls.
Gujarat got new faces – Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary, and Mohanbhai Kalyanjibhai Kundarya, while Olympian Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Sanwar Lal Jat were inducted from Rajasthan. Vijay Sampla, BJP Hoshiarpur MP, was inducted as MoS.
List of ministers and portfolios
Prime Minister Narendra Modi: Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions; Department of Atomic Energy Department of Space; All important policy issues and all other portfolios not allocated to any Minister
Cabinet Ministers:
Rajnath Singh: Home Affairs
Sushma Swaraj: External Affairs, Overseas Indian Affairs
Arun Jaitley: Finance, Corporate Affairs, Information & Broadcasting
M. Venkaiah Naidu: Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Parliamentary Affairs
Nitin Jairam Gadkari: Road Transport and Highways, Shipping
Manohar Parrikar: Defence
Suresh Prabhu: Railways
D.V. Sadananda Gowda: Law & Justice
Uma Bharati: Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation
Najma A. Heptulla: Minority Affairs
Ramvilas Paswan: Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
Kalraj Mishra: Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
Maneka Sanjay Gandhi: Women and Child Development
Ananthkumar: Chemicals and Fertilizers
Ravi Shankar Prasad: Communications and Information Technology
Jagat Prakash Nadda: Health & Family Welfare
Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati: Civil Aviation
Anant Geete: Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises
Harsimrat Kaur Badal: Food Processing Industries
Narendra Singh Tomar: Mines, Steel
Chaudhary Birender Singh: Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Drinking Water and Sanitation
Jual Oram: Tribal Affairs
Radha Mohan Singh: Agriculture
Thaawar Chand Gehlot: Social Justice and Empowerment
Smriti Zubin Irani: Human Resource Development
Harsh Vardhan: Science and Technology, Earth Sciences
Ministers of State:
General V.K. Singh: Statistics and Programme Implementation (Independent Charge), External Affairs, Overseas Indian Affairs
Inderjit Singh Rao: Planning (Independent Charge), Defence
Santosh Kumar Gangwar: Textiles (Independent Charge)
Bandaru Dattatreya: Labour and Employment (Independent Charge)
Rajiv Pratap Rudy: Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (Independent Charge), Parliamentary Affairs
Shripad Yesso Naik: AAYUSH (Independent Charge), Health & Family Welfare
Dharmendra Pradhan: Petroleum and Natural Gas (Independent Charge)
Sarbananda Sonowal: Youth Affairs and Sports (Independent Charge)
Prakash Javadekar: Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Independent Charge)
Piyush Goyal: Power (Independent Charge), Coal (Independent Charge), New and Renewable Energy (Independent Charge)
Jitendra Singh: Development of North Eastern Region (Independent Charge), Prime Minister’s Office, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Space
Nirmala Sitharaman: Commerce and Industry (Independent Charge)
Mahesh Sharma: Culture (Independent Charge), Tourism (Independent Charge), Civil Aviation
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi: Minority Affairs, Parliamentary Affairs
Ram Kripal Yadav: Drinking Water & Sanitation
Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary: Home Affairs
Sanwar Lal Jat: Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation
Mohanbhai Kalyanjibhai Kundariya: Agriculture
Giriraj Singh: Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises
Hansraj Gangaram Ahir: Chemicals & Fertilizers
G.M. Siddeshwara: Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises
Manoj Sinha: Railways
Nihalchand: Panchayati Raj
Upendra Kushwaha: Human Resource Development
Radhakrishnan P.: Road Transport & Highways, Shipping
Kiren Rijiju: Home Affairs
Krishan Pal: Social Justice & Empowerment
Sanjeev Kumar Balyan: Agriculture
Manuskhbhai Dhanjibhai Vasava: Tribal Affairs
Raosaheb Dadarao Danve: Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
Vishnu Deo Sai: Mines, Steel
Sudarshan Bhagat: Rural Development
Ram Shankar Katheria: Human Resource Development
Y.S. Chowdary: Science and Technology, Earth Science
Jayant Sinha: Finance
Col. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore: Information & Broadcasting
Babul Supria (Babul Supriyo) Baral: Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation
Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti: Food Processing Industries
Vijay Sampla: Social Justice & Empowerment (IANS)
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