Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s expansion of his Council of Ministers turned out to be a redrawing of his entire team, with major changes in portfolios held by senior members. This seems to be a consequence of a very thorough performance appraisal done by Mr. Modi of his Ministers over the last three months, during his monthly meetings with his entire Council.
Prakash Javadekar, promoted on Tuesday morning to Cabinet rank, was one of the biggest gainers in the reshuffle, bagging the prestigious Human Resource Development portfolio. He replaces Smriti Irani, who has been handed the Textiles portfolio. This brings to an end Ms. Irani’s controversy-ridden tenure, which saw unrest break out in campuses across the country.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, sources said, opted out of handling the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, with the charge now being handled by Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu. Mr. Jaitley will handle Corporate Affairs as well, as before.
It was also promotion time for Information and Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who got back the Law portfolio after losing it in November 2015. His Communications portfolio has been given to Manoj Sinha, who has been promoted to Minister of State with independent charge.
D.V. Sadananda Gowda has been given Statistics and Programme Implementation, which could be a disappointment to him.
Another big gainer was Minister of State for Power Piyush Goel, who gets Coal and Mines as well.
This major rejig, with the induction of 19 new faces, is significant with regard to the upcoming Parliament session, with Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister Ananth Kumar, known for networking across party lines, being given additional charge of Parliamentary Affairs. Minister of State Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who retains Minority Affairs, will assist him in Parliamentary Affairs, as will newly inducted Minister of State S.S. Ahluwalia.
Mr. Ahluwalia will also be Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
Another Cabinet Minister Narendra Tomar, who was handling Mines, will now look after Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Drinking Water and Sanitation, while the Minister handling this earlier, Chaudhary Birender Singh, has been allocated the Steel Ministry.
Another big surprise is several Ministers of State being given independent charge of Ministries. According to a list of portfolio allocations released by the government late in the evening, Anil Madhav Dave, sworn in as Minister of State, has been given independent charge of Environment and Forests and Climate Change, while Vijay Goel has been allocated the portfolio of Sports and Youth Affairs, again as independent charge.
If these two were given promotions, Santosh Gangwar has been stripped of that rank, and been made Minister of State for Finance, replacing Jayant Sinha who will now be Minister of State for Civil Aviation. Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma, has been divested of his Minister of State charge of Aviation and will only retain Tourism and Culture.
Other new Ministers of State allocated portfolios, included External Affairs to M.J. Akbar who will share this with General V.K. Singh. Defence has been allocated to Dr. Subhash Bhamre. NDA allies Anupriya Patel and Ramdas Athawale have been allocated Health and Family Welfare and Social Justice and Empowerment respectively.
Here is the list of all ministers:
Shri Raj Nath Singh - Home Affairs | Smt. Sushma Swaraj - External Affairs |
Shri Arun Jaitley Finance - Corporate Affairs | Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu - Urban Development Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation Information & Broadcasting |
Shri Nitin Jairam Gadkari - Road Transport and Highways Shipping | Shri Manohar Parrikar - Defence |
Shri Suresh Prabhu - Railways | Shri D. V. Sadananda Gowda - Statistics & Programme Implementation |
Sushri Uma Bharati - Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation | Dr. Najma A. - Heptulla Minority Affairs |
Shri Ramvilas Paswan - Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution | Shri Kalraj Mishra - Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises |
Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi - Women & Child Development | Shri Ananthkumar - Chemicals & Fertilizers Parliamentary Affairs |
Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad - Law & Justice Electronics & Information Technology | Shri Jagat Prakash Nadda - Health & Family Welfare |
Shri Ashok Gajapathi - Raju Pusapati Civil Aviation | Anant Geete - Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises |
Here is the full list of minister of states:
Shri Rao Inderjit Singh Planning (Independent Charge) Urban Development Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation
Shri Bandaru Dattatreya Labour & Employment (Independent Charge)
Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (Independent Charge)
Shri Vijay Goel Youth Affairs and Sports (Independent Charge) Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation
Shri Shripad Yesso Naik AAYUSH (Independent Charge)
Shri Dharmendra Pradhan Petroleum and Natural Gas (Independent Charge)
Shri Piyush Goyal Power (Independent Charge) Coal (Independent Charge) New and Renewable Energy (Independent Charge) Mines (Independent Charge)
Dr. Jitendra Singh Development of North Eastern Region (Independent Charge) Prime Minister’s Office Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions Department of Atomic Energy Department of Space
Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman Commerce and Industry (Independent Charge)
Dr. Mahesh Sharma Culture (Independent Charge) Tourism (Independent Charge)
Shri Manoj Sinha Communications (Independent Charge) Railways
Shri Anil Madhav Dave Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Independent Charge)
General V. K. Singh External Affairs
Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar Finance
Shri Faggan Singh Kulaste Health & Family Welfare
Shri Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi Minority Affairs Parliamentary Affairs
Shri Ramdas Athawale Social Justice & Empowerment
Shri Ram Kripal Yadav Rural Development
Shri Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises
Shri Giriraj Singh Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises
Shri Hansraj Gangaram Ahir Home Affairs
Shri G. M. Siddeshwara Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises
Shri Ramesh Chandappa Jigajinagi Drinking Water & Sanitation
Shri Rajen Gohain Railways
Shri Parshottam Rupala Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Panchayati Raj
Shri Upendra Kushwaha, Human Resources Development
Shri Radhakrishnan P Road Transport & Highways Shipping
Shri Kiren Rijiju Home Affairs
Shri Krishan Pal Social Justice & Empowerment
Shri Jasvantsinh Sumanbhai Bhabhor Tribal Affairs
Dr. Sanjeev Kumar Balyan Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation
Shri Vishnu Deo Sai Steel
Shri Sudarshan Bhagat Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
Shri Y.S. Chowdhary, Science & Technology
Shri Jayant Sinha Civil Aviation
Col. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore Information & Broadcasting
Shri Babul Supriyo Urban Development Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation
Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti Food Processing Industries
Shri Vijay Sampla Social Justice & Empowerment
Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal Finance Corporate Affairs
Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey Human Resource Development
Shri Ajay Tamta Textiles
Smt. Krishna Raj Women & Child Development
Shri Mansukh L. Mandaviya Road Transport & Highways, Shipping, Chemicals & Fertilizers
Smt. Anupriya Patel Health & Family Welfare
Shri C. R. Chaudhary Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution
Shri P. P. Chaudhary Law & Justice Electronics & Information Technology
Dr. Subhash Ramrao Bhamre, Defence
