New Delhi: Amit Shah, Nirmala Sitharaman, Rajnath Singh and S. Jaishankar set to return as Union home, finance, defence and external affairs ministers respectively in the third term of Narendra Modi as prime minister.
A day after President Droupadi Murmu administered oaths of office and secrecy to 72-member council of ministers, Prime Minister Modi allocated portfolios on Monday.
The distribution of portfolios makes it clear the top ministries will remain with the BJP despite the fact that it has to rely on the allies to run the government. Allies, however, have been accommodated with some key ministries.
Continuity has been given priority even in the case of other ministries such as commerce (Piyush Goyal), highways and transport (Nitin Gadkari), railways and IT (Ashwini Vaishnav), environment (Bhupendra Yadav), and education (Dharmendra Pradhan). Vaishnav has also been given the additional responsibility of information and broadcasting ministry, held earlier by Anurag Thakur.
Union Council of Ministers by The Wire on Scribd
Two former BJP chief ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Manohar Lal Khattar, who have been made part of the Union council of ministers, have been given plum posts. Chouhan is the new agriculture and rural development minister. Manohar Lal Khattar is set to head power, and housing and urban affairs.
Ravneet Singh Bittu, who lost the Ludhiana seat after switching from Congress to the BJP, has been made minister of state for food processing and railways. Kiren Rijiju is the new minority affairs minister.
J.P. Nadda, whose term as the BJP president is set to expire later this month, is the new health minister. He will also additionally handle chemicals and fertilisers’ ministry. Nadda had served as health minister in the first term of the Modi government.
Newly inducted minister, Gujarat BJP president C.R. Paatil has been rewarded for his back-to-back successful elections and given the Jal Shakti ministry and will handle PM’s flagship Nal Se Jal scheme.
Allies have been given industrial management portfolios. Chirag Paswan got his father Ram Vilas Paswan’s food processing. TDP’s K. Ram Mohan Naidu will replace Jyotiraditya Scindia as civil aviation minister. JD (S) chief H.D. Kumaraswamy is set to head steel and heavy industries. HAM (S) chief Jitan Ram Manjhi will be the cabinet minister for MSME. Ally JD (U)’s Lalan Singh got two portfolios Panchayati Raj and Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and dairying.
Annapurna Devi, Kodarma MP, will be the new women and child development minister, the only other woman apart from Nirmala Sitharaman in the new cabinet.
Out of the 72-member council of ministers, only seven are women, with Sitharaman and Annapurna Devi being the only two cabinet members.
