Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the new ministers.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi added 21 more ministers today to his government, among them two IITians, an Olympic silver medallist and a Bollywood Singer.
There is also Vijay Sampla from Punjab who began life as a plumber and YS Chowdary of the Telugu Desam Party, who is worth 190 crore.
And there is Suresh Prabhu, who quit the Shiv Sena this morning and joined the BJP. The Sena boycotted the oath ceremony this afternoon at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, bringing its relationship with the BJP to a new low.
The four new cabinet ministers are former Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar, Mr Prabhu who, sources say could be the new Railway minister, JP Nadda, a low-key BJP organisational man who debuts as a minister straight with Cabinet rank, and powerful Jat leader from Haryana Birender Singh, a Congressman-turned BJP leader.
There are three new ministers of state with independent charge, including prominent BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy and the BJP's single MP from new state Telangana Bandaru Dattatreya. And there are 14 ministers of state or junior ministers, bringing the total strength of Team Modi to 66.
Mr Parrikar, an IIT Bombay graduate is tipped to take over as India's next Defence Minister, though there has been buzz that he could be given charge of the Home Ministry, with Home Minister Rajnath Singh moving to Defence. Jayant Sinha, son of former Finance minister Yashwant sinha, has studied at IIT, Delhi and at Harvard in the US.
In the selection today, there is the distinct stamp of the RSS - many of the new ministers, including Mr Parrikar and Mr Nadda, have deep roots in the BJP's ideological mentor.
There is also a strategic focus on balancing regional aspirations, especially with an eye on forthcoming must-win state elections for the BJP. So Bihar, which votes next year, gets three new ministers. Apart from Mr Rudy, there is Ram Kirpal Yadav, imported from Lalu Prasad's party, and who is crucial to the BJPs plan of making inroads into the influential Yadav vote in Bihar.
Giriraj Singh, who made controversial comments earlier this year, but represents the powerful Bhumihar community, is also a new minister.
Olympian shooter Rajyavendra Rathore took oath today as did singer Babul Supriyo, both first time MPs. Mr Supriyo is one of two BJP MPs in Bengal, where the party hopes to make a dent in state elections in 2016.