New Delhi: BJP bigwigs and heavyweight ministers including Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari are among eight ministers who have retained their portfolios in the Council of Ministers announced Monday, with the Modi government seemingly focusing on continuity in governance.
The BJP, which is the single largest party in the coalition with 240 seats has mostly retained its core team. The party has kept the top four ministries that are part of the important Cabinet Committee on Security with Rajnath Singh retaining the defence portfolio, Amit Shah home, S. Jaishankar external affairs, and Nirmala Sitharaman finance.
Shah also retains the Ministry of Cooperation, while Sitharaman has also been given the charge of commerce ministry. Some of the other important portfolios including railways, road transport, education, health, commerce, information and broadcasting, parliamentary affairs has also been retained by the BJP giving rise to murmurs of discontent from among its alliance partners such as the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
On Sunday, PM Minister Narendra Modi took oath along with 71 ministers of the new coalition government at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Similarly, Gadkari continues with the road and highways portfolio. BJP national president J.P. Nadda, who made an entry to the cabinet after five years, is back to the health ministry. Besides, he has also been given chemical and fertilizers ministry.
A first-time inductee in the Union cabinet, former Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar has two big infrastructure ministries — power and housing, and urban affairs. The all-important two rural portfolios of agriculture and farmers welfare and rural development are with former Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
Of the five cabinet ministers from BJP’s allies,Telugu Desam Party’s Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu, the youngest minister in the Modi cabinet, has been given aviation.
Janata Dal (Secular) H.D. Kumaraswamy will oversee the ministries of heavy industries and steel; Rajiv Ranjan Singh of Janata Dal (United) panchayati raj and fisheries, animal husbandry and dairying. Chirag Paswan of Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) is in charge of food processing industries. Hindustani Awam Morcha’s Jitan Ram Manjhi gets micro, small and medium enterprises.
Dharmendra Pradhan and Ashwini Vaishnaw, the two cabinet ministers from Odisha, also retained their old portfolios. While Pradhan retains education, Vaishnaw will continue as the rail minister. Besides, Vaishnaw has also been given Information and Broadcasting and ministry of electronics and information technology.
Piyush Goyal has retained the commerce and industry portfolio, while Bhupender Yadav retained just the environment ministry. He will no longer look after the labour ministry, which is now with Mansukh Mandaviya. Mandaviya also has youth affairs and sports.
The Cabinet ministers whose portfolios are changed include Giriraj Singh, who will be in charge of the textile ministry, and Kiren Rijiju who will be the parliamentary affairs and minority affairs minister. G. Kishen Reddy will look after ministries of coal and mines, while former Jal Shakti minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat in charge of tourism and culture. Pralhad Joshi has been given consumer affairs, food and public distribution and new and renewable energy.
Among the other BJP ministers, who have retained their old portfolios, are Sarbanand Sonowal and Virendra Kumar. Sonowal has retained shipping and ports, while Kumar has retained social justice and empowerment. Jual Oram, too, will remain tribal affairs minister. Hardeep Singh Puri retains just the petroleum and natural gas portfolio.
New BJP cabinet inductees
Among the new cabinet ministers, former Gujarat state president C.R. Patil will look after the Jal Shakti ministry. Annpurna Devi, who was an Minister of State (MoS) in the previous Modi cabinet, is the new women and child development minister.
The Council of Ministers will have 27 ministers belonging to Other Backward Class, 10 from Scheduled Caste, 5 from Scheduled Tribe, and 5 from minorities, including Sikh and Christian.
At 72, which includes the PM, the jumbo cabinet is short of the maximum permissible strength of 81. Prior to this, it was in 2021 that the total strength of the Council of Ministers post expansion was 78, one of the biggest cabinets.
Most MoS’ have retained old portfolios but some new faces including allies
Among the five MoSs with independent charge, the three BJP ministers — Rao Inderjit Singh, Jitendra Singh, and Arjun Ram Meghwal — have retained most of their old portfolios.
Two ministers from BJP’s allies — Prataprao Ganpatrao Jadhav from the Shiv Sena and Jayant Chaudhary from the Rashtriya Lok Dal — have been made MoS with independent charge. While Ganpatrao has been given the health and ayush portfolio, Chaudhary will be the junior minister for education and skill development.
There are several new ministers, including from BJP’s allies, who have been inducted as MoS.
Suresh Gopi, the sole BJP MP to win from Kerala, will be the MoS petroleum and natural gas and tourism while Ravneet Singh Bittu who lost from Ludhiana will be the junior minister of railways and food processing industries. Bittu was earlier with the Congress and joined the BJP just ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
Another minority leader from Kerala, George Kurian, who did not contest the Lok Sabha election nor is a Rajya Sabha member has been inducted into the Modi Cabinet. Considered by many as BJP’s Christian face in Kerala, Kurian has been given minority affairs and fisheries, animal husbandry and dairy.
Former Telangana BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar, a first time entrant in the cabinet, will be the junior home minister, while Ajay Tamta, who won from Uttarakhand, is the MoS in the road ministry.
West Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar, another new inductee in the Council of Ministers, was given education and Development of North Eastern Region.
Of the four MPs from BJP allies who were made MoS portfolio, JD(U)’s Ram Nath Thakur has been given agriculture, Apna Dal’s Anupriya Patel has retained her health portfolio and TDP’s Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani has been given rural development and communication.
Republican Party of India’s Ramdas Athawale has retained social justice and empowerment.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: With NDA set to take oath for 3rd time, all eyes on big bureaucratic appointments of Modi 3.0