New Delhi, May 30: Marking the culmination of an unprecedented victory run for the BJP, Narendra Modi took oath of office and secrecy as the Prime Minister for a second consecutive term amid thunderous applause from a select gathering in the sprawling forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan this evening.
President Ram Nath Kovind administered the oath to Modi, 24 Cabinet colleagues, nine Ministers of State (Independent Charge) and 24 Ministers of State. The loudest cheer was reserved for BJP chief Amit Shah, whose induction means the party will have to elect a new president.
The event was marred by ally Janata Dal (United) deciding not to take oath even as party chief Nitish Kumar marked his presence by attending the ceremony. Among the allies, Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan retained his place in the Cabinet, as did Harsimrat Kaur Badal of the SAD.
Arvind Sawant, who defeated Milind Deora in South Mumbai, made it from the Shiv Sena quota. There was no representation from Tamil Nadu. Tamil-speaking Nirmala Sitharaman, who took oath as a Cabinet minister, represents Karnataka in Rajya Sabha.
Besides Shah, the new members from the BJP include Prahlad Joshi, former Chief Ministers Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and Arjun Munda, while party’s UP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey makes a comeback into the Council of Ministers and has been elevated to Cabinet rank, as was Giriraj Singh, who was MoS (Independent Charge) earlier.
Former Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar was the lone surprise inductee into the Cabinet, becoming the second former ranking Indian Foreign Service officer to be drafted into the new team led by Modi. Modi has retained former diplomat Hardeep Singh Puri as Minister of State (Independent Charge).
Missing among the Cabinet ministers from the outgoing government were Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj. While the former opted out, Swaraj did not contest the polls, both citing health concerns.
Similarly, missing from the MoS (Independent Charge) list were Dr Mahesh Sharma, Rajyavardhan Singh Ratho-re and K Alphons, while Manoj Sinha failed to make the cut as he lost the election.
The new Ministers of State include Nityanand Rai, Suresh Angadi and first-time MPs G Kishan Reddy (Telangana), Debosree Chowdhury (West Bengal) and Pratap Chandra Sarangi (Odisha).
No Suresh Prabhu, Jayant, rathore
New Delhi: PM Narendra Modi has dropped parliamentarians and key economic ministers in the previous NDA government like Suresh Prabhu, Jayant Sinha and Manoj Sinha. The name of Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore was also missing from the list of ministers who took oath.
- Narendra Modi begins second term with 57-member Council of Ministers
- BJP’s key strategist and party chief Amit Shah included in Cabinet
- Sushma, Maneka not in Sarkar 2.0, Irani among 6 women ministers
Team for second innings
Cabinet Ministers
- Rajnath Singh
- Amit Shah
- Nitin Gadkari
- DV Sadananda Gowda
- Nirmala Sitharaman
- Ram Vilas Paswan
- Narendra Singh Tomar
- Ravi Shankar Prasad
- Harsimrat Kaur Badal
- Thawar Chand Gehlot
- S Jaishankar
- Ramesh Pokhriyal
- Arjun Munda
- Smriti Irani
- Harsh Vardhan
- Prakash Javadekar
- Piyush Goyal
- Dharmendra Pradhan
- Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi
- Prahlad Joshi
- Mahendra Nath Pandey
- Arvind Sawant
- Giriraj Singh
- Gajendra S Shekhawat
MoS (Independent)
- Santosh Gangwar
- Rao Inderjit
- Shripad Naik
- Jitendra Singh
- Kiren Rijiju
- Prahlad Singh Patel
- RK Singh
- Hardeep Singh Puri
- Mansukh Mandaviya
Ministers of State
- Faggan Singh Kulaste
- Ashwini Choubey
- Arjun Meghwal
- VK Singh
- Krishan Pal Gurjar
- Raosaheb Danve
- G Kishan Reddy
- Purshottam Rupala
- Ramdas Athawale
- Niranjan Jyoti
- Babul Supriyo
- Sanjeev Balyan
- Sanjay Dhotre
- Anurag Thakur
- Suresh Angadi
- Nityanand Rai
- Rattan Lal Kataria
- V Muraleedharan
- Renuka S Saruta
- Som Parkash
- Rameswar Teli
- Pratap Chandra Sarangi
- Kailash Choudhary
- Debosree Chowdhury
JD-U chooses to stay out
New Delhi: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday said that Janata Dal-United would not be part of the Modi government. He called the BJP’s offer of participation (one ministerial post) in the Modi-led ministry “symbolic representation”.
Provision for 80 ministers
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi can have as many as 80 ministers in the 543-member Lok Sabha. As per the Constitution, the total number of Union ministers, including the Prime Minister, shall not exceed 15 per cent of the number of members in the Lok Sabha.
