NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today effected a major reshuffle and expansion of his Council, inducting seven ministers of state into the Cabinet, adding 36 new faces and dropping 12 senior ministers.
Those inducted today included Maharashtra strongman Narayan Rane, the first among the 43 new ministers to be administered the oath of office by President Ram Nath Kovind at a ceremony in the iconic Darbar Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhawan.
Rane was followed by Assam ex-CM Sarbananda Sonowal, seven-time Tikamgarh (Madhya Pradesh) MP Virendra Singh, and RS MP Jyotiraditya Scindia, who jumped ship from the Congress last year, taking down the Kamal Nath government in MP. The names of Rane, Sonowal and Scindia had been doing the rounds for long as the topmost ‘probables’ in the reshuffle.
Ministers of state, including Kiren Rijiju, a prominent face from the Northeast, bureaucrats RK Singh and Hardeep Puri, Gujarat MPs Mansukh Mandaviya and Purushottam Rupala, Secunderabad representative G Kishan Reddy, who is considered close to Home Minister Amit Shah, and Hamirpur MP Anurag Thakur were rewarded for their performance and promoted to the Cabinet rank.
The other new faces in the Cabinet included former bureaucrat and Rajya Sabha MP Ashwani Vaishnav and his colleague in the Upper House, Bhupendra Yadav. Also seen as Home Minister Shah’s right-hand man, Yadav is a lawyer by profession and at the top in the BJP’s scheme of things. The 15 new Cabinet ministers included two from the alliance partners — national president of the JD-U Ram Chandra Prasad Singh and leader of the breakaway group of the LJP Pashupati Kumar Paras. Apna Dal MP Anupriya Patel, a prominent Kurmi face from UP, was inducted as Minister of State.
Those inducted also include New Delhi MP Meenakshi Lekhi and Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar MP Ajay Bhatt, both ministers of state
Meanwhile, those who resigned to make way for them are Cabinet ministers Thawar Chand Gehlot (now the Karnataka Governor), Ravi Shankar Prasad, Prakash Javadekar, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Harsh Vardhan, DV Sadananda Gowda and ministers of state Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Babul Supriyo, Dhotre Sanjay Shamrao, Rattan Lal Kataria, Pratap Chandra Sarangi and Debasree Chaudhuri.
With an eye on the upcoming Assembly elections and 2024 General Election, the new ministers include seven from poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, four from Karnataka, and four from West Bengal. The mid-term course correction saw several surprise entries. It is a young Council with 14 ministers below the age of 50.
With Gujarat Assembly elections less than a year away, the renewed Cabinet now has seven ministers from the state. They include Home Minister Amit Shah and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, who represents Gujarat in the Rajya Sabha.
The average age of the Council of Ministers with six doctors, 13 lawyers, seven former bureaucrats, and five engineers is said to be 58 years.
With as many as 27, 12 and 8 ministers from the OBC, SC and ST categories, respectively, the Prime Minister today tried to give a new dimension to the BJP which is known for its upper-caste credentials while balancing experience with freshness and talent.
Those in the know of developments say “talent and administrative experience have been rewarded”. The Modi-Shah stamp is visible and a whole lot of planning and arithmetic has gone into the exercise, taking into consideration a host of issues ranging from the challenges amid the Covid pandemic, perceptions, and state elections.
Sources say the PM today asked the new ministers to work with better coordination with the BJP and “let their work speak for them”.
Lekhi is MoS (MEA)
Portfolios of newly inducted Ministers of State
- Pankaj Choudhary: Finance
- Anupriya Patel: Commerce, Industry
- SPS Baghel: Law and Justice
- Rajiv Chandrashekhar: Skill Development, IT
- Shobha Karandlaje: Agriculture, Farmers Welfare
- Bhanu Verma: MSME
- Darshana Jardosh: Textiles
- Meenakshi Lekhi: Ministry of External Affairs, Culture
- Annapurna Devi: Education
- A Narayanswamy: Social Justice and Empowerment
- Kaushal Kishore: Housing, Urban Development;
- Ajay Bhatt: Defence, Tourism
- BL Verma: NE Development and Cooperation
- Ajay Kumar: Home
- Devusinh Chauhan: Communications
- Bhagwant Khuba: New and Renewable Energy, Chemicals, Fertilisers
- Kapil Patil: Panchayati Raj
- Pratima Bhoumik: Social Justice and Empowerment
- Subhas Sarkar: Education
- Bhagwat Karad: Finance
- Rajkumar Ranjan Singh: MEA, Education
- Bharati Pawar: Health
- Bisheshwar Tudu: Tribal Affairs, Jal Shakti
- Shantanu Thakur: Ports, Shipping
- M Mahendrabhai: Women & Child Development, Ayush
- John Barla: Minority Affairs
- L Murugan: Fisheries, Dairy, Information & Broadcasting
- Nisith Pramanik: Home, Youth Affairs, Sports
2 MoS (Ind charge)
Rao Inderjit Singh gets Statistics and Programme Implementation, Planning; Jitendra Singh given Science and Technology, Earth Sciences. He retains PMO, Personnel
Two from allies make it to Cabinet
The 15 new Cabinet ministers include two from the alliance partners — national president of the JD-U Ram Chandra Prasad Singh and leader of the breakaway group of the LJP Pashupati Kumar Paras.
Rijiju, Puri, Anurag among elevated
- Those promoted to Cabinet rank include MoS Kiren Rijiju, prominent face from the Northeast, and bureaucrats RK Singh and Hardeep Puri.
- Gujarat MPs Mansukh Mandaviya and Purushottam Rupala, Secunderabad representative G Kishan Reddy and Hamirpur MP Anurag have also been rewarded for their performance.
Council strength 77
- The outgoing council had 53 ministers of which 12 resigned & 7 have been elevated to Cabinet rank
- With the induction of 36 new ministers, the total strength of the Union Cabinet now stands at 77
- Record representation to OBCs (27), Dalits (12), tribals (8)
- Seven new women ministers, a total of 11 now in Council
- Modi-Shah stamp visible, talent and performance rewarded
- PM wants new ministers to have better coordination with BJP