Modi
Cabinet reshuffled – 9 New Faces as Ministers
Nine new Ministers of state were inducted into the Union Council of
Ministers. Four Ministers of state were elevated to the cabinet rank.
They are
Minister of State for Commerce and Industries Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of
State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of State For
Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy and Mines, Piyush Goyal and Minister of
State for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. President Ram Nath Kovind
administered the oath of office and secrecy to them at Rashtrapati Bhavan. The
portfolios of the Ministers will be announced later.
Cabinet
Ministers:
Nirmala Sitharaman: Former Minister of State for Commerce was given the portfolio of Defence
Minister. Sitharaman is the first woman after Indira Gandhi to hold the
portfolio of Defence Minister. Also, along with Sushma Swaraj, she is the only
other woman in Narendra Modi’s cabinet.
Piyush Goyal: He was given the portfolio of Railways Minister and he also retains the
Ministry of Coal.
Dharmendra Pradhan: He will continue to have charge of Petroleum and Natural Gas and will
also be Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, which Rajiv Pratap
Rudy gave up two days ago.
Muqtar Abbas Naqvi: He will continue to handle the charge of Ministry of Minority Affairs but
as a Cabinet Minister.
Council
of Ministers Reshuffled:
Suresh Prabhu: Former Railways Minister will be handling the charge of Ministry of
Commerce.
Nitin Gadkari: Apart from Transport Ministry, he was given the charge of Ministry of
Water Resources and Ganga Rejuvenation.
Uma Bharti: She was moved away from the Water Resources Ministry and was given the
charge of Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.
Vijay Goel: He was moved from Sports Ministry and was given the charge of Ministry of
Parliamentary Affairs and Statistics & Programme Implementation.
Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore: He was given the charge of Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.
New
Faces in the Council of Ministers:
Hardeep Puri: Former diplomat was given the charge of Ministry of Housing and Urban
Affairs as Independent charge.
RK Singh: Former Home Secretary and first time MP from Arrah in Bihar was given the
charge of Ministry of Power and MNRE (Ministry of New and Renewable Energy) as
independent charge.
K J Alphons: Veteran bureaucrat, who led Kottayam to be first 100% literate town in
India, was given the charge of Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of Electronics
and Information Technology (MeiTY).
Gajendra Singh Shekhawat: Lok Sabha MP from Jodhpur (Rajasthan) is the new Minister of State for Agriculture
and Farmers Welfare.
Shiv Pratap Shukla: Lok Sabha MP from Buxar in Bihar, was given the charge Minister of State
in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Satya Pal Singh: Former Mumbai Police Commissioner and first time MP from Baghpt (Uttar
Pradesh) was given the charge of Development, and Minister of State in the
Ministr of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.
Virendra Kumar: Lok Sabha MP from Tikamgarh (Madhya Pradesh) was made Minister of State
in the Ministry of Women and Child Development, and Minister of State in the
Ministry of Minority affairs.
Anant Kumar Hegde: Lok Sabha MP from Uttara Kannada (Karnataka) was made Minister of State
in the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
Outgoing
Ministers:
The six outgoing ministers from the Cabinet include Kalraj Mishra (MoS
MSME), Rajiv Pratap Rudy (MoS Independent Charge of Skill Development), Bandaru
Dattatreya (Labour), Faggan Singh Kulaste (MoS Health), Sanjiv Balyan (MoS
Water Resources) and Mahendra Nath Pandey (MoS HRD). Pandey was recently named
BJP chief of Uttar Pradesh.