BJP leader Narendra Modi on Thursday was sworn in as Prime Minister for the second time. Fifty seven Ministers took oath with him.
By winning 303 seats, the Bharatiya Janata Party got the decisive mandate to rule the country for the next five years. Even though the party has the required numbers to form the government on its own, it has decided to accommodate its allies in the Ministries.
Here is the full list of those who took oath today:
Cabinet Ministers | Union Minister of State, Independent Charge | Ministers of State |
| Rajnath Singh | Santosh K Gangwar | Faggansingh Kulaste |
| Amit Shah | Rao Indrajit Singh | Ashwini Kumar Choubey |
| Nitin Gadkari | Shripad Y Naik | Arjun Ram Meghwal |
| DV Sadanand Gowda | Dr. Jitendra Singh | General (Retd.) V. K. Singh |
| Nirmala Sitharaman | Kiren Rijiju | Krishan Pal |
| Ram Vilas Paswan | Prahalad Singh Patel | Danve Raosaheb Dadarao |
| Narendra Singh Tomar | Raj Kumar Singh | G. Kishan Reddy |
| Ravi Shankar Prasad | Hardeep Singh Puri | Parshottam Rupala |
| Harsimrat Kaur Badal | Mansukh Mandaviya | Ramdas Athawale |
| Thawar Chand Gehlot | Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti | |
| Dr. S Jaishankar | Babul Supriyo | |
| Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank | Sanjeev Kumar Balyan | |
| Arjun Munda | Dhotre Sanjay Shamrao | |
| Smriti Irani | Anurag Singh Thakur | |
| Dr. Harshvardhan | Angadi Suresh Channabasappa | |
| Prakash Javadekar | Nityanand Rai | |
| Piyush Goyal | Rattan Lal Kataria | |
| Dharmendra Pradhan | V. Muraleedharan | |
| Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi | Renuka Singh Saruta | |
| Prahalad Joshi | Som Parkash | |
| Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey | Rameswar Teli | |
| Arvind Sawant | Pratap Chandra Sarangi | |
| Giriraj Singh | Kailash Choudhary | |
| Gajendra Singh Shekhawat | Debasree Chaudhuri |
Kailash Choudhary
Kailash Chaudhary. Photo courtesy: Twitter/@KailashBaytu
Minister of State, Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare
Kailash Choudhary was elected to Lok Sabha for the first time by defeating former BJP veteran Jaswant Singh's son Manvendra Singh, who had crossed over to Congress last year, by a margin of over three lakh votes in Barmer, which is the country's second largest Lok Sabha constituency. He was earlier elected an MLA from Barmer district's Baytu constituency, but was defeated in the 2018 State Assembly election.
Debasree Chaudhuri
Deboshree Chowdhury. Photo courtesy: DD News
Minister of State, Women and Child Development
Debasree Chaudhuri is the BJP general secretary for West Bengal. She was elected to the Lower House of Parliament from the State's Raiganj seat.
Pratap Chandra Sarangi
Pratap Sarangi. File
Minister of State, MSME, Animal Husbandry, Dairy and Fisheries
This MP from Balasore is, perhaps, the highlight of tonight's ceremony during which he received a standing ovation.
Known for his frugal living, the two-time BJP MLA from Nilagiri assembly segment -- also known as ' Odisha's Modi' -- defeated BJD's Rabindra Kumar Jena.
Som Parkash
Som Parkash. Photo courtesy: DD News
Minister of State, Commerce and Industry
This former IAS officer from Punjab was an MLA from the State's Phagwara assembly constituency before he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Hoshiarpur.
Rameswar Teli
Rameshwar Teli. Photo courtesy: DD News
Minister of State, Food Processing
This BJP leader from Assam was elected to the Lok Sabha from the state's Dibrugah constituency. He beat Congress veteran Paban Singh Ghatowar by a record margin of over 3.6 lakh votes this year. In 2014 too, he contested against Mr. Ghatowar, beating the five-time parliamentarian by a margin of over 1.85 lakh votes.
Renuka Singh Saruta
Renuka Singh Satura. File Photo courtesy: Twitter/@renukabjp
Minister of State, Tribal Affairs
This first time MP was elected from the Surguja Lok Sabha constitutency in Chhattisgarh. The constituency was previously held by BJP's Kamalbhan Singh Marabi.
V. Muraleedharan
V. Muraleedharan.
Minister of State, External Affairs, Parliamentary Affairs
Mr. Muraleedharan, who took oath as Union Minister of State, is former president of BJP in Kerala. He is a Rajya Sabha MP and the fourth BJP leader from Kerala in the Upper House.
Rattan Lal Kataria
Ratan Lal Kataria. Photo courtesy: Twitter/@katariabjp
Minister of State, Jal Shakti, Social Justice and Empowerment
This BJP leader was elected to the Lok Sabha from Haryana's Ambala constituency. He held the constituency in 1999, but lost to Congress' Kumari Selja for two consecutive elections before he won it back in 2014.
Nityanand Rai
Bihar BJP president Nityanand Rai. File
Minister of State, Home Affairs
Nityanand Rai is a BJP leader from Bihar, who was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Ujiarpur constituency. He was elected from the same constituency in 2014 as well.
Mr. Rai is the current head of BJP in Bihar.
Suresh Angadi
Suresh Angadi.
Minister of State, Railways
First-time Minister Suresh Angadi represents Karnataka's Belgaum constituency in the Lok Sabha.
With the induction of Mr. Angadi, BJP hopes to strengthen its hold in North Kannada region.
Anurag Singh Thakur
Anurag Thakur
Minister of State, Finance and Corporate Affairs
Son of former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, Anurag Thakur was the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, until the Supreme Court appointed a Committee of Administrators to govern the cricket body.
Mr. Thakur was the Chief Whip of BJP in the 16th Lok Sabha. He has been representing Hamirpur, a seat represented by his father, since 2008. Mr. Thakur was the president of BJP's Yuva Morcha. He is also part of the territorial army.
Dhotre Sanjay Shamrao
Dhotre Sanjay Shamrao. Photo courtesy: Twitter/@SanjayDhotreMP
Minister of State HRD, Communications, IT
This BJP leader was elected to the Lok Sabha from Maharashtra's Akola constituency. This is the fourth time he's been elected from this constituency.
Sanjeev Kumar Balyan
Sanjeev Kumar Baliyan. File
Minister of State, Animal Husbandry, Dairy, Fisheries
Sanjeev Kumar Baliyan represents Muzaffarnagar. He defeated RLD chief Ajit Singh in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. He was Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing in Modi 1.0. He was an accused in the 2013 Muzaffarnagr riots. In January 2019, the Uttar Pradesh government decided to withdraw 18 cases related to the Muzaffarnagar riots and asked the district authorities to approach the court. Several leaders of the ruling BJP, including Mr. Balyan and Bharatendra Singh, MLAs Sangeet Som and Umesh Malik, have been named in these 125 cases.
Babul Supriyo
Babul Supriyo. File
Minister of State, Environment, Forests and Climate Change
Supriya Baral, better known by his screen name Babul Supriyo is a prominent playback singer known for crooning some memorable Bollywood numbers. Mr. Supriyo joined the BJP in 2014 and was one of the two MPs from West Bengal. He was the youngest Minister in Modi 1.0. After being a junior Minister for Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation, he was transferred to Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Ministry.
Niranjan Jyoti
Niranjan Jyoti. File
Minister of State, Rural Development
Niranjan Jyoti served as Minister of State for Food Processing Industries in the outgoing government. Ms. Jyoti stoked a controversy by allegedly making communal remarks and using an expletive in an election rally in Delhi, leaving the BJP and the government embarrassed as an angry Opposition demanded that she be sacked. The remarks that voters of Delhi should choose between “Ram's sons” and “illegitimate sons” drew the ire of Opposition which protested in Parliament following which Ms. Jyoti expressed “deep regret” and apologised for her actions and said she did not intend to hurt anyone's feelings.
Ramdas Athawale
Ramdas Athawale. File
Minister of State, Social Justice and Empowerment
President of Republican Party of India (A), Ramdas Athwale is a Rajya Sabha member and the Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment in the outgoing government. A prominent Dalit leader from Maharashtra, Mr. Athwale was part of the Dalit Panthers movement. He was associated with various parties including the NCP, and Congress, and finally joined the NDA in 2014. In the parliament, Mr. Athawale is known for his impromptu shayari s.
Purushottam Rupala
Purushottam Rupala.
Minister of State, Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
Gujarat BJP leader Purushottam Rupala was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2016. He hails from Amreli district and is considered an influential Patel leader from Saurashtra. He has been the State BJP president (2006-09) as well as a Rajya Sabha member earlier (2008-2014). He also served as a Minister in the Gujarat Government from 1995 to 2002.
Kishan Reddy
Kishan Reddy. File
Minister of State, Home Affairs
G. Kishan Reddy is Telangana BJP president and he won the Secunderabad seat. He succeeded BJP veteran Bandaru Dattatreya in the seat. Mr. Kishan Reddy was the MLA of Amberpet Assembly seat thrice.
Raosaheb Danve
Raosaheb Danve. File
Minister of State, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
Raosaheb Dadarao Danve is currently Maharashtra BJP chief. He won the Jalna Lok Sabha seat for the fifth straight time in 2019.
Kishan Pal Gurjar
Kishan Pal Gujjar. Photo courtesy: Twitter/@KPGBJP
Minister of State, Social Justice and Empowerment
Born in a farmer family in Mewla Maharajpur village in Haryana, Faridabad MP Krishan Pal Gurjar, was the Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment in the previous Narendra Modi government. He also served as Minister of State for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways in the Modi government for the first six months.
Mr. Gurjar defeated his nearest rival and Congress leader Avtar Singh Bhadana with a record margin of more than six lakh votes in 2019 to improve his own victory record of over four lakh votes in 2014.
A Law graduate, Mr. Gurjar was active in students politics. He started his journey to electoral politics as a BJP councillor in 1994. In 1996, he was elected as MLA from Mewal Maharajpur and served as Transport Minister in Bansi Lal government. He was made the Haryana BJP chief in 2009. He enjoys the reputation of being soft-spoken and amiable.
V.K. Singh
V.K. Singh. File
Minister of State, Road Transport and Highways
General (Retd.) V.K. Singh, former Army Chief, came into prominence over the legal war he waged against the establishment over his date of birth. He eventually lost the war when the Supreme Court in 2012 refused to intervene in his plea, pointing out that the Army Chief, who accepted the government's decision in determining his date of birth on three occasions, could not go back on his commitment. The Union Minister of State for External Affairs in the first Modi Ministry is infamous for his comments against journalists calling them “presstitutes" and for his 2015 “government cannot be blamed if somebody throws a stone at a dog” remark he made in the context of the murder of two Dalit children in Faridabad. During the evacuation of Indians from war-torn Yemen, he received praise from his senior, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj who credited him for “leading from the front like a General” during the operations.
Arjun Ram Meghwal
Arjun Ram Meghwal. File
Minister of State, Parliamentary Affairs, Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises.
This former civil servant from Rajasthan quit administration to join politics in 2009 by contesting from Bikaner Lok Sabha seat. He has been representing the constituency since then. In the recently-concluded elections, Mr. Meghwal defeated his cousin Madan Gopal.
Mr. Meghwal was the Chief Whip of BJP in Lok Sabha in 2014. Two years later, he was made a junior minister who handled various portfolios including Finance, Parliamentary Affair, rural development, Ganga Rejuvenation, among others. Mr. Meghwal was the recipient of the Best Parliamentarian Award in 2013.
Ashwini Kumar Choubey
Ashwini Kumar Choubey. File
Minister of State, Health and Family Welfare
Ashwini Kumar Choubey served as Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare in Modi 1, and a member of the 16th Lok Sabha. He was re-elcted from Buxar in 2019.
Mansukh L. Mandaviya
Mansukh Mandaviya. File
Minister of State (Independent Charge), Shipping
Minister of State, Chemicals and Fertilisers
Mansukh Laxmanbhai Mandaviya, 46, is one of the young members of Modi 1.0 in which he served as Minister of State. He is from Gujarat and has also served as an MLA in the State.
Faggan Singh Kulaste
Faggan Singh Kulaste
Minister of State, Steel
Faggan Singh Kulaste , 60, was a former Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare. He represents Mandla constituency of Madhya Pradesh.
Hardeep Singh Puri
Hardeep Singh Puri. File.
Minister of State (Independent Charge), Housing and Urban Affairs, Civil Aviation
Minister of State, Commerce and Industry
Diplomat-turned-politician, Hardeep Singh Puri made his unsuccessful foray into electoral battle in Amritsar in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Mr. Puri was made Union Minister of State for Urban Housing in September 2017 and a Rajya Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh in January 2018. He has authored two books — Perilous Interventions: The Security Council and the Politics of Chaos and Delusional Politics: Back To The Future . His wife Lakshmi Puri is also a diplomat, and is curently serving as Deputy Executive Director, Strategic Partnerships, Coordination and Intergovernmental Support Bureau, U.N. Women.
R.K. Singh
Raj Kumar Singh. Photo courtesy: Twitter/@RajKSinghIndia
Minister of State (Independent Charge), Power, new and renewable energy
Minister of State, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship
This former bureaucrat is the MP from Bihar's Arrah seat. He joined the BJP in 2013 and was fielded in Arrah the next year. In 2019, he defeated CPI(M-L)(L)'s Raju Yadav by more than 1,40,000 votes. He served as MoS in the renewable energy and power Ministries in Modi 1.0.
Prahlad Singh Patel
Prahalad Patel. File
Minister of State (Independent Charge), Culture, Tourism
This is the second stint for Prahalad Patel as a Minister. He previously held the portfolio of coal in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ministry. Mr. Patel was the national president of the Bharatiya Janata Mazdoor Mahasangh, the trade union wing of the BJP. He was elected to the Lok Sabha from Madhya Pradesh's Damoh constituency.
Kiren Rijiju
Union Minister of State Kiren Rijiju. File
Minister of State (Independent Charge), Youth Affairs and Sports
Minister of State, Minority Affairs
Kiren Rijiju takes oath. The Minister of State for Home Affairs in the outgoing government, Mr. Rijiju is the face of BJP in the Northeast. He is representing Arunachal (West) for the third time. Known for his oratory skills, Mr. Rijiju is one of the few leaders from the Northeast to make a mark in the national scene. His father Rinchin Kharu was the first pro-tem Speaker of the Arunachal Pradesh Assembly. Mr. Rijiju faced criticism for the MHA's decision to send Rohingya Muslims back to Myanmar at a time when the country was accused of ethnic cleansing. He also had to apologise in the Lok Sabha for mistakenly referring Tamils as refugees.
Jitendra Singh
Jitendra Singh.
Minister of State (Independent Charge), Development of North Eastern Region
Minister of State, PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension, Atomic Energy, Space
Jitendra Singh takes oath. Dr. Singh represents Jammu and Kashmir's Udhampur in Lok Sabha. An endocrinology professor and a practicing medical professional, Dr. Singh was a junior Minister in the PMO and in-charge of North East Development in the outgoing government. Dr. Singh courted controversy with his remarks on abolishing the Article 370 that gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
Shripad Yesso Naik
Minister of State (Independent Charge), AYUSH
Minister of State, Defence
Shripad Yesso Naik takes oath. Mr. Naik is the BJP's North Goa MP. He served as MoS in the AYUSH and Health Ministries in the previous government.
Rao Inderjit Singh
Gurugram MP Rao Inderjit Singh. File
Minister of State (Independent Charge), Statistics, Planning
Rao Inderjit Singh is represents Gurgaon in Haryana. A senior Ahirwal leader he served as Union Minister of State for Planning (independent charge) in the first Modi Ministry. He joined the BJP before the Lok Sabha election in 2014. A five-time MP, he defeated his nearest rival and Congress leader Capt. Ajay Yadav with more than four lakh votes to win Gurgaon Lok Sabha seat for the third consecutive term. He had earlier represented Mahendergarh Lok Sabha seat twice. Mr. Singh had quit Congress to join the BJP in 2014 following his differences with the then Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Mr. Singh has also been Minister of State for External Affairs and Defence Production during the UPA rule. Descendant of Rao Tula Rao, the 1857-Independence War freedom fighter, he has earlier been MLA four times and served as minister in the Haryana government. His father late Rao Birender Singh has been Chief Minister of Haryana and Union Agriculture and Food and Supplies Minister.
Santosh Kumar Gangwar
Santosh Kumar Gangwar
Minister of State (Independent Charge), Labour
Santosh Kumar Gangwar represents Bareilly and held the the portfolio of Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Labour and Employment in the previous Ministry.
Gajendra Singh Shekhawat
Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. File
Minister of Jal Shakti
Gajendra Singh Shekhawat was the Minister of State for Agriculture in the previous Narendra Modi government. He defeated Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's son Vaibhav Gehlot in Jodhpur by a margin of 2.74 lakh votes.
Mr. Shekhawat is known for his active use of social media and is the most followed Indian politician on Quora. A person with RSS roots, Mr. Shekhawat is credited for organising Swadeshi Mela in Jodhpur, a platform to showcase indigeneous produces.
Giriraj Singh
Giriraj Singh. File Photo: Shanker Chakravarty
Minister of Animal Husbandry, Dairy and Fisheries
Firebrand BJP leader from Bihar Giriraj Singh won the Lok Sabha election this time from Begusarai by defeating CPI candidate and former JNU student’s union president Kanhaiya Kumar by over 4 lakh votes. Mr. Singh was the only minister from Bihar in previous Modi government.
Mr. Singh has often grabbed headlines with his talks that leaned towards hard Hindutva and muscular nationalism. The Election Commission took action against him for his anti-Muslim comments during the election campaign. Though known to be close to Mr. Modi and Mr. Shah, his political differences with State leaders like Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi and State party chief Nityanand Rai is an open secret.
Piyush Goyal
Union Minister Piyush Goyal .
Minister of Railways, Commerce and Industry
Railways and Coal Minister in the outgoing Cabinet, Mr. Goyal served as the Interim Finance Minister when Arun Jaitley was undergoing medical treatment. The last budget of the NDA government was presented by Mr. Goyal.
A Chartered Accountant and Law graduate, Mr. Goyal was an investment banker before joining politics. His father Ved Prakash Goyal was a minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government.
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi
Minister of Minority Affairs
The Muslim face of BJP, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi was elected to Rajya Sabha in 2016 from Jharkhand. He served as Minority Affairs Minister in Narendra Modi's government. He has also handled Parliamentary Affairs and I&B portfolios earlier as a junior minister.
Smriti Irani
New Delhi: Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani speaks during the convocation ceremony of India Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) in New Delhi, on Friday. PTI Photo by Arun Sharma(PTI4_27_2018_000103B)
Minister of Women and Child Development, Textiles
History will remember the actor-turned-politician as the woman who defeated Congress president Rahul Gandhi in his traditional stronghold Amethi.
A firebrand leader, this is Ms. Irani's first entry to the Lok Sabha. She had unsuccessfully contested from Chandini Chowk and Amethi earlier.
Her stint as a Minister in Mr. Modi's cabinet was a controversial one. When she was the HRD Minister, Dalit Scholar Rohith Vemula ended his life citing harassment and witholding stipend in his suicide note, which spearheaded country-wide campus uprisings. During her term as I&B Minister, a set of National Awardees boycotted the event after it was announced that President won't be distributing awards to all of them. She was also the Textiles Minister. Ms. Irani's educational qualification was also a subject of debate as it was found that degree was different everytime she filed nomination for contesting elections.
Prakash Javadekar
Prakash Javadekar at the Parliament.
Minister of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, I&B
A prominent leader from Maharashtra who made it big in Delhi, Prakash Javdekar is currently a Rajya Sabha member elected from Madhya Pradesh. He had earlier held Environment, Information and Broadcasting, and Parliamentary Affairs portfolios as well. Mr. Javadekar is also a spokesperson of the BJP.
He started his political career as a student leader of ABVP and took part in the anti-Emergency protests.
S. Jaishankar
NEW DELHI, 09/08/2018: S. Jaishankar seen during a discussion ' India and The World: 10yers after Lifting of Nuclear Strictures' , New Delhi on Thursday . Photo: Sushil Kumar Verma/The Hindu
Minister of External Affairs
Former foreign secretary S Jaishankar, a surprise pick in Narendra Modi’s council of ministers, is a seasoned diplomat who was the Indian government’s pointsman for China and the US.
Mr. Jaishankar, son of late K. Subrahmanyam, one of India’s leading strategic analysts, was a key member of the Indian team which negotiated the landmark Indo-US nuclear deal. The deal, initiated in 2005, took several years to craft, and was signed by the UPA government headed by Manmohan Singh in 2007.
Mr. Jaishankar’s appointment as foreign secretary in January 2015 had evoked a sharp reaction from various quarters over the timing of the government’s decision to remove Sujatha Singh.
The 64-year-old had earlier served as India’s Ambassador to the US and before that to China. A 1977-batch IFS officer, Mr. Jaishankar played a key role in resolving the crisis following the incursion in Ladakh’s Depsang and the Doklam stand-off, handling the tough negotiations with Beijing. Among other positions, Mr. Jaishankar has been India’s High Commissioner to Singapore and Ambassador to the Czech Republic.
Ravi Shankar Prasad
Minister of Law and Justice, Communication, IT
Law and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad made his maiden entry to the Lok Sabha by defeating his erstwhile party colleague Shatrugan Sinha in Bihar's Patnasahib constituency.
Ravi Shankar Prasad
A Supreme Court lawyer, Mr. Prasad started his political journey as an ABVP leader. He had participated actively in the“JP movement”, a student movement in Bihar started by veteran socialist leader Jay Prakash Narayan.
His father Thakur Prasad too had been a leading advocate of the Patna High Court and one of the leading founders of the Jan Sangh, which later became BJP. Under Vajpayee and Narendra Modi's cabinet, Mr. Prasad ealier served as junior minister of Coal, Communication, and I&B too.
Harsimrat Kaur Badal
B.LINE:Minister of Food Processing Industries ,Harsimrat Kaur Badal during the Curtain Raiser Press Conference for World Food India 2017 , in New Delhi ,on 16.10.17. Pic : Kamal Narang 
Minister of Food Processing
Harsimrat Kaur Badal is the daughter-in-law of Shironmani Akali Dal patriach Parkash Singh Badal. Her husband Sukhbir Singh Badal was formerly Punjab's Deputy Chief Mininster. Ms. Badal was one of the few women ministers in Modi's cabinet and handled Food Processing Ministry. She is the lone minister from Shironmani Akali Dal.
Nirmala Sitharaman
CHENNAI, 10/03/2019: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman addressing at the Womense Day Celebrations organised by SICCI and FICCI on Sunday. Photo: R. Ragu / The Hindu
Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs
Nirmala Sitharaman has the distinction of being the first full-time woman Defence Minister. Ms. Sitharaman hails from Tamil Nadu, is married into a Telugu family, and represents Karnataka in Rajya Sabha.
She first served as a junior minister handling commerce portfolio in the Narendra Modi cabinet before being elevated as the Defence Minister. She was also a spokesperson of BJP.
Ram Vilas Paswan
Ram Vilas Paswan.
Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
Mr. Paswan did not contest the General Elections this time, but his party had won all six parliamentary seats it had contested in Bihar. Under the seat-sharing pact of NDA, the BJP president Amit Shah had, earlier, announced that Mr. Paswan would be sent to Rajya Sabha on first opportunity.
Mr. Paswan has been a Union Minister under several Prime Ministers. He was the Labour Minister under V.P Singh, Railway Minister in the United Front government, handled Mines and IT portfolio during Vajpayee's rule and was the Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers during UPA-1. In the outgoing cabinet, Mr. Paswan was the Consumer Affairs Minister.
Sadananda Gowda
D.V. Sadananda Gowda
Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers
Former Chief Minister of Karnataka Sadananda Gowda has been associated with the saffron party since Jana Sangh days. He was handpicked by B.S. Yeddyurappa to become the Karnataka Chief Minister when the veteran Karanataka BJP leader had to step down after his name surfaced in the illegal mining cases.
However, Mr. Gowda's chief ministership was short-lived as he had to make way for Jagadish Shetter. After facing a humiliating defeat in the 2013 Assembly elections, Mr. Gowda won the subsequent Lok Sabha elections from Bangalore North and shifted base to Delhi.
Mr. Gowda handled Railways, Law, Statistics, and Fertilizers Ministry in the outgoing government. Mr. Gowda presented the first Railway Budget of the Modi government, which had promised a high-speed bullet train. Two years later, the Railway Budget became a part of the General Budget.
Arvind Sawant
BL 28-12-2015 MUMBAI, MAHARASHTRA: (FOR FILE) Member of Parliament, Arvind Sawant . Pic by SHASHI ASHIWAL
Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises
The firebrand Shiv Sena leader was elected from Mumbai South by defeating Mumbai Congress chief Milind Deora. Mr. Sawant took voluntary retirement from state-owned MTNL in 1995 and joined politics. He is still the president of MTNL workers union.
Mr. Sawant is also a prominent facing in television debates as Sena's representative. This is Mr. Sawant's first stint in the Lok Sabha and has been rewarded with a ministerial berth.
Dr Harsh Vardhan
Union Minister for of Science and Technology Harsh Vardhan at a function held at IIT Madras in Chennai on January 25, 2019. Photo: K.V. Srinivasan
Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Science and Technology, and Earth Sciences
A prominent face in the Delhi BJP, Harsh Vardhan, 64, was the party's Chief Ministerial candidate in the 2013 Delhi Assembly polls. He served as the Leader of the Opposition as the BJP could not form government then. He became an MP from Chandni Chowk in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and became Health Minister in the Modi Cabinet. However the stint lasted only about six months when he was moved to the Science and technology Ministry. He was given additional charge of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Ministry in May 2017.
He is known for his claims that Indians had practised inoculation against small pox even before the vaccine was invented by Edward Jenner and that Stephen Hawking had said Vedas had a ‘theory’ superior to Einstein’s thesis. In November 2018, he made his heavily-trolled comment “explaining” Congress president Rahul Gandhi's gotra.
Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank
Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank. File
HRD Minister
Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, was Uttarakhand Chief Minister between 2009 and 2011. He became a Lok Sabha member in 2014. On December 3, 2014, while participating in a debate on The School of Planning and Architecture (SPA) Bill in the Lok Sabha, Mr. Pokhriyal said: “Science is a dwarf in front of astrology.” He went on to add, “Astrology is the biggest science. It is in fact above science. We should promote it.... We speak about nuclear science today. But Sage Kanad conducted nuclear test one lakh years ago.”
Rajnath Singh
Rajnath Singh. File
Minister of Defence
Rajnath Singh, the BJP's Uttar Pradesh strongman, became the 19th Chief Minister of the State in 2000. He became BJP president for the first time 2005 and then again in 2013 till 2014. He was instrumental in promoting Modi as PM candidate of the party for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. After the polls he was made the Home Minister of India.
Arjun Munda
Arjun Munda.
Minister of Tribal Affairs
Arjun Munda, 51, became the second Chief Minister of Jharkhand, after it was carved out from the Bihar, and went on to hold the post for two more terms. He also served as an MP from Jamshedpur in 2009 and made it to the Lok Sabha in 2019 from the Khunti seat.
Amit Shah
Amit Shah at a BJP National Convention in New Delhi on January 11.
Minister of Home Affairs
A first time Lok Sabha MP and a first time Minister, Amit Shah was the third person to be sworn in after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rajnath Singh. Mr. Shah is BJP's national president and for the first time, the party has ignored its rule of "one man, one rule" to accommodate him in the Cabinet. Attached to the ABVP, Mr. Shah was taken into the BJP in the late 80s. He served as a State minister when Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister in Gujarat. At one point, Mr. Shah was holding as many as 12 portfolios. When Mr. Shah was in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, BJP managed to win 73 out of 80 seats and subsequently fomed the State government. During his tenure as BJP's president, the party claimed to get 100 crore members. The BJP and its allies were winning every State elections after 2014, until the juggernaut stopped six months back when Congress wrested three crucial States from BJP. However, Mr. Shah and team ensured the party got absolute majority in the Lok Sabha polls.
It was during the tenure of Mr. Shah as the Gujarat Home Minister, a spree of fake encounter cases surfaced. Mr. Shah was charged and later jailed in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case. He is currently out on bail and the case is pending before a CBI court. He was also accused of ordering illegal surveillance on a woman in 2009. Years later, the case was dropped after the said woman sought to withdraw the case to protect her privacy.
Nitin Gadkari
CHENNAI, TAMIL NADU: 26/02/2018: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari at The Hindu office in Chennai on Monday.
Photo: V. Ganesan
Minister of Road Transport and Highways, MSME
The former president of BJP is the troubleshooter for the party and its allies. Nitin Gadkari, who started as ABVP leader, went on to become Maharashtra's Minister of Public Works. It was during his tenure the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, India's first six-lane, high speed expressway was launched. In the outgoing Union cabinet, Mr. Gadkari served various portfolios including, surface transport, Drinking Water and Sanitation, Panchayati Raj, Rural Development, and Shiiping among others. The country's first inland waterways freight transport, increased the pace of road creation in the country to 30 km/day, among others.
Thawar Chand Gehlot
Thawar Chand Gehlot
Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment
The Scheduled Caste fce of the BJP, Thawar Chand Gehlot, was an active member od Jana Sangh. He rose to fame during his pro-labour agitations in Madhya Pradesha nd was jailed during the Emergency. Mr. Gehlot had served as a junior Minister in Madhya Pradesh cabinet and was a receipient of Best Legislator Award. As the Minister of Social Justice, Mr. Gehlot brought the Bill that gives quota to 10 per cent poor among the General Category.
Dharmendra Pradhan
NEW DELHI, 05/05/2017: Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan addressing the media on Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), in New Delhi on Friday.
Photo: V. Sudershan
Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Steel
Hailing from Odisha, Dharmendra Pradhan was elected to Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh. He is the son of former BJP MP Debendra Pradhan.
Pralhad Joshi
Pralhad Joshi
Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Coal and Mines
Pralhad Joshi, who was also BJP Karnataka president, came to limelight as Rastradwaja Horata Samiti Sanchalak, when the party organised a movement to hoist the tricolour at Idgah Maidan in Hubballi that had created a huge law and order situation. In his long political career spanning over decades, this will be the first time that Joshi will be serving as a minister. A member of the RSS since a young age, Pralhad Joshi was groomed at its training camps. He then got himself associated with the BJP and became a party activist. He is considered among those who are instrumental in making Hubballi-Dharwad and surrounding areas as the saffron party's bastion.
Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey
Uttar Pradesh BJP President Mahendra Nath Pandey. File photo.
Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship
Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey has a Ph.D in Hindi from Banaras Hindu University, where he was the general secretary of the student's union. Dr. Pandey was active in Ram Janma Bhoomi Movement and was booked under the NSA.
