On Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s government inducted forty-three new Union ministers. With elections in five states scheduled for early next year, the first Union cabinet reshuffle in the second term of the Modi government is politically crucial.
Seven ministers of state (MoS) were elevated to Cabinet ministers, while 36 new faces joined the Union cabinet. This comes after 12 senior Union cabinet ministers were asked to quit from the government, including IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, I&B minister Prakash Javadekar, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, and Labor Minister Santosh Gangwar.
Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, and Bihar have been given better representation in the new Union cabinet, with more Union Council of Ministers inducted from these states. Former chief ministers Narayan Rane (Maharashtra) and Sarbananda Sonowal are among the new renowned faces inducted into the new cabinet (Assam).
Virendra Kumar, a seven-time MP from Madhya Pradesh, and Jyotiraditya M Scindia, a former Congress politician who joined the BJP and is also from MP, are among those appointed as cabinet ministers.
Ramchandra Prasad Singh, the national president of the JD-U, will represent Bihar alongside Ajay Kumar, the MP for Bhagalpur, and Ashwini Vaishnaw, a Rajya Sabha member from Odisha.
Pashupati Kumar Paras, the leader of the LJP breakaway section and late Ram Vilas Paswan’s brother, has also been sworn in as a minister representing Bihar. Kiren Rijiju, Raj Kumar Singh, Hardeep Singh Puri, Mansukh Mandaviya, Parshottam Rupala, G. Kishan Reddy, and Anurag Singh Thakur are among the current ministers who have been promoted to the Cabinet.
Pankaj Chaudhary, the MP from Maharajganj, alliance partner Apna Dal’s leader Anupriya Patel, Agra MP Satya Pal Singh Baghel, Jalaun MP Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma, Mohanlalganj MP Kaushal Kishore, and state BJP Vice President B.L. Verma are among the new faces inducted into the Union cabinet from Uttar Pradesh, which goes to the polls next year.
Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar and BJP Vice President Shobha Karandlaje were appointed as ministers from Karnataka, as were Chitradurga MP A. Narayanswamy and Bidar MP Bhagwanth Khuba.
Darshana Vikram Jardosh of Surat, Devusingh Chauhan of Kheda, and Mahendrabhai Munjapara of Surendranagar were all inducted as Union ministers from Gujarat. New Delhi MP Meenakashi Lekhi and Koderma MP Annapurna Devi are among the prominent women MPs recruited into PM Modi’s cabinet.
Subhas Sarkar, a Bankura MP and a doctor, and Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad, a Rajya Sabha member from Maharashtra and a doctor, were among those who took the oath.
Rajkumar Ranjan Singh of Manipur, Bharati Pravin Pawar of Dindori (Maharashtra), Bishweswar Tudu of Mayurbhnaj, John Barla of West Bengal, L. Murugan of Tamil Nadu, and Nisith Pramanik and Ajay Bhatt of Uttarakhand have also been inducted into the Union cabinet.
Rajasthan’s BJP General Secretary Bhupender Yadav has also been appointed as a minister.
