Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his Council of Ministers
After an expansion and reshuffle of the Narendra Modi cabinet on Sunday, Manohar Parrikar is the country's new Defence Minister and Suresh Prabhu will hold the Railways portfolio. They were among 21 new ministers sworn in on Sunday.
Here are the latest developments
Mr Parrikar, who resigned as Goa chief minister on Saturday, takes over from Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who had additional charge of Defence. Mr Jaitley will now hold the Finance, Corporate Affairs and Information and Broadcasting portfolios.
Suresh Prabhu takes Railways over from Sadananda Gowda, who will now be the Law and Justice minister, a charge held so far by Ravi Shankar Prasad who had two ministries. Mr Prasad will keep the Communications and Information Technology portfolio.
Another new Cabinet minister, JP Nadda will be the Health Minister, instead of Delhi veteran Dr Harsh Vardan, who will now be the minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences.
Chaudhary Birender Singh of Haryana, the fourth cabinet minister who took oath on Sunday, will be the new minister for Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Drinking Water and Sanitation. Nitin Gadkari gives up rural development - a charge he held since the death of Gopinath Munde in June - and will focus on Road Transport and Highways and Shipping.
No minister of state with independent charge has been elevated to cabinet rank. Rajiv Pratap Rudy, sworn in on Sunday, will have independent charge of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship. Other new ministers with independent charge are Bandaru Dattatreya (Labour and Employment) and Mahesh Sharma (Tourism).
Mr Rudy and Mukhtar Abas Naqvi will be junior ministers for Parliamentary Affairs. Mr Naqvi will also assist Cabinet minister Najma Heptullah in Minority Affairs.
Arun Jaitley gets two new ministers as his juniors - Jayant Sinha, son of former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, will assist Mr Jaitley in the Finance ministry, while Olympic shooting medalist and former Armyman Rajyavardhan Rathore will do so in Information and Broadcasting.
Singer Babul Supriyo, the lone minister from West Bengal, will assist Venkaiah Naidu in Urban Development and Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation.
PM Modi will meet his expanded cabinet on Monday evening, followed by a meeting with the entire council of ministers. He now has 65 ministers.
The Shiv Sena stayed away from the oath ceremony because they were not offered a cabinet berth. The Rashtrapati Bhavan noted in an official statement that the Shiv Sena's Anil Desai "could not be administered the oath of office and secrecy as he was not available for the purpose."
Post a comment