Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday expanded his Council of Ministers for the second time since 2014.
The 19 new Ministers are from 10 States, with a nod to the coming Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand and bolstering the talent pool with “doers”, albeit mostly with junior Ministers.
Live updates:
1 pm: Mr. Modi greets his new colleagues
Congrats to newly sworn-in colleagues. Lets work together to bring a positive difference & for >#TransformingIndia . >pic.twitter.com/Xo8naAyd0S
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) >July 5, 2016
12.17 pm: Mr. Meghwal was summoned in a rape case.
12.13 pm: The five dropped from the Cabinet are Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers Nihal Chand Meghwal, MoS HRD Ram Shankar Katheria, MoS Water Resources Sanwar Lal Jat, MoS Tribal Affairs Manuskhbhai D. Vasva and MoS Agriculture M.K. Kundariya dropped.
12.10 pm: Five Ministers dropped from the Union Council of Ministers, sources in the government tell PTI.
11:40 am: The swearing-in ceremony ends with the playing of the National Anthem.
11:38 am: Subhash Bhamre, Dhule MP, takes oath as Minister of State. Dr. Bhamre is a general surgeon, who specialises in cancer surgery.
11:35 am: P.P. Chaudhary takes oath as Minister of State. He is currently the Chairperson of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Offices of Profit.
11:34 am: Rajasthan MP C.R. Chaudhary takes oath.
11:31 am: Apna Dal leader Anupriya Patel takes oath. She is the daughter of Apna Dal founder Sone Lal Patel and represents Mirzapur. Her party is a part of the NDA in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh.
11:31 am: Mansukh Mandaviya takes oath.
11:29 am: Krishna Raj takes oath. She is an MP from Shahjahanpur. With her, the number of women in Modi's cabinet is seven.
11:27 am: Uttarakhand MP Ajay Tamta takes oath.
11:26 am: Mahendra Nath Pandey takes oath. The Chandauli MP has earned a PhD in Hindi.
11:24 am: Another Gujarat leader takes oath. Jasvantsinh Sumanbhai Bhabhor is an Adivasi MP elected from Dahod.
11:22 am: Arjun Ram Meghwal takes oath. The MP was in the news for levelling charges against Robert Vadra in a land grab case in Bikaner. He is the chief whip of the BJP in the Lok Sabha and a member of the Ethics Committee.
11:21 am: Journalist-turned-politician M.J.Akbar takes oath as Minister of State in English. He joined the BJP in 2014 before which he had contested from Kishanganj in Bihar on a Congress ticket.
11:19 am: Parshottam Rupala takes oath. He is a Gujarat BJP leader and a member of Rajya Sabha. He was a minister in Narendra Modi's Gujarat Cabinet. He has followed Mr. Modi to New Delhi now.
11:17 am: Anil Madhav Dave takes oath as a first-time minister.
11:15 am: Rajen Gohain, BJP MP from Asom takes oath in English. Mr. Gohain is likely to replace Sarabananda Sonowal, who is now Assam's Chief Minister.
11:13 am: Republican Party of India (Athawale) chief, and ally in the NDA Ramdas Bandu Athawale takes oath. He takes oath twice. Mr. Athwale skipped his name, first time. He re-took the oath after President Pranab Mukherjee prompted him.
11:11 am: Delhi BJP leader Vijay Goel takes oath. He was elected to Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan.
11:09 am: Ramesh Chandappa Jigajinagi takes oath in English. A first-time Minister of State, he represents Bijapur in the Lok Sabha.
10:07 am: Darjeeling MP S.S. Ahluwalia and BJP's National vice president sworn in as a minister.
11:05 am: Faggan Singh Kulaste takes oath as Minister of State. The Madhya Pradesh MP was a junior minister in Vajpayee's Cabinet.
11:03 am: National anthem ends. Swearing-in officially begins. First minister to take oath is Prakash Javadekar. He has been promoted as a minister. He was holding independent charge as MoS for I&B, Environment and Parliamentary Affairs.
11:00 am: The swearing-in ceremony will begin in a few minutes now. Meantime, >here is the list of ministers in the present Cabinet.
10:45 am: What does the Constitution say on the number of Ministers in a Cabinet? Article 72 of the Constitution prescribes that the total number of Ministers, including the Prime Minister, in the Council of Ministers shall not exceed 15 per cent of the number of members of the House of the People. This means the Central government can accomodate up to 82 Ministers. >Read more
10:41 am: Yes Minister! We are not using that headline.
Media - Pl avoid the headline : 'Sushma skips Oath Ceremony'.
— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) >July 5, 2016
10:41 am: "I congratulate and welcome all my colleagues joining the Council of Ministers," Ms. Swaraj tweeted.
10:40 am: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will not be attending the swearing-in ceremony, as she has a meeting with the Foreign Minister of Hungary.
10:30 am: The Modi government has announced the names of 19 ministers, who will be inducted into the Cabinet.
