Amit Shah to team up with Modi to deliver on his governance agenda

Narendra Modi took the oath of office as Prime Minister for the second time in a row after leading the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to a resounding victory in the general election. He heads a council of ministers that’s 58 members strong, including 25 of Cabinet rank (counting in the Prime Minister). Of the remaining ministers of state, nine will have independent charge of their portfolios.

The most significant of the new entrants was BJP president Amit Shah, who was sworn in third as Cabinet minister after PM Modi and Rajnath Singh, reflecting his status in the new government. He’s widely tipped to get charge of the finance ministry.

Modi, however, dropped external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, who like outgoing finance minister Arun Jaitley, has been struggling with health issues. She also pulled out from contesting the Lok Sabha elections for the same reason. Suresh Prabhu, who was commerce minister, was also left out.


The surprise induction was that of former foreign secretary S Jaishankar, who was sworn in as Cabinet minister ahead of second-term ministers such as Smriti Irani, Piyush Goyal and Dharmendra Pradhan. He’s expected to get a significant portfolio, like the ministry of external affairs or commerce. Others who took the oath of office as Cabinet ministers include Nitin Gadkari, DV Sadananda Gowda, Nirmala Sitharaman and Ram Vilas Paswan.

Two Ministers of State from West Bengal
Former minister of state Giriraj Singh was promoted to Cabinet rank. Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey was also inducted as a Cabinet minister.

Ten senior leaders who were in the last Cabinet weren’t part of the new government. They included Jaitley, who had ruled himself out for health reasons, Swaraj, Maneka Gandhi, Uma Bharati, JP Nadda, Chaudhary Birender Singh and Radha Mohan Singh.

On other hand, two former chief ministers — Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank of Uttarakhand and Arjun Munda of Jharkhand — were inducted.

The first meeting of the new Cabinet is likely on Friday.

The ceremony took place at Rashtrapati Bhavan in the presence of guests from all over India and overseas.

Kiren Rijiju was made a minister of state with independent charge. Four who were part of the last government as ministers of state with independent charge weren’t included in the new government. They include Rajyavardhan Rathore, Manoj Sinha, Mahesh Sharma and KJ Alphons. Sinha and Alphons lost their Lok Sabha elections.

The new faces include Madhya Pradesh tribal leader Faggan Singh Kulaste, who was inducted into the Cabinet. Anurag Thakur from Himachal Pradesh became a minister of state for the first time. Bihar BJP president Nityanand Rai replaced Ram Kripal Yadav as the Yadav representative from Bihar in the new government. With the BJP having made inroads into West Bengal, Babul Supriyo and Debashree Chaudhary from the state were made ministers of state.

First-time MP from Balasore, Odisha, Pratap Chandra Sarangi was also inducted. From Rajasthan, Kailash Chaudhary, who defeated Manvendra Singh in Barmer, was made minister of state. Suresh Angadi, MP from Belgaum in Karnataka, replaced Anant Kumar Hedge in the new government.

NDA ally JDU did not join the government after talks failed over ministerial berths. The party said it didn’t want a symbolic representation, but would remain part of the alliance. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar attended the swearing-in ceremony.