Cabinet expansion: 43 leaders sworn-in, 15 take oath as Cabinet ministers; UP bags maximum berths

Effecting a big reset, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday brought in 43 ministers into his Council of Ministers while dropping as many as 12 ministers including health minister Harsh Vardhan, IT and Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Information and Broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar.

The reshuffle first since the Narendra Modi govt returned to power in 2019, will see several new faces including former Maharashtra chief minister Narayan Rane, as well as return of former Assam minister Sarbananda Sonowal back into the Modi cabinet.

Here are the key highlights of the Cabinet expansion:

Forty-three leaders sworn-in

A total of 43 leaders took oath of office and secrecy. Of them, 36 are new inductees while seven are existing ministers. India Today citing unnamed sources reported the portfolios will be announced tonight itself once the Cabinet expansion exercise is complete.

There are 53 Union ministries. However, these ministries will be handled only by 30 Cabinet Ministers and 2 Ministers of State with Independent Charge, sources told News18.

This is being done to bring in synergies between ministries which have similar or overlapping domains, sources told News18. Silos between ministries which help achieve a common objective will be broken down and an efficient, whole of government approach will be enabled with the new work allocation.

For example, the Health Ministry and the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers will now be handled by same minister. Pharmaceuticals and other drugs are essential in the health domain and it made eminent sense to have same minister handle both the portfolios.

Similar approach has been adopted in other domain ministries as well wherever such clubbing was necessary.

Fifteen Cabinet ministers sworn-in

As many as 15 Cabinet ministers, including some new faces, were sworn-in at the swearing in ceremony held in the Darbar Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhawan. While 13 members took oath in Hindi, two took in English. Another 28 leaders too oath as ministers of state (MoS).

Eight new faces sworn-in as Cabinet ministers

The NDA government on Friday appointed eight new faces as Cabinet ministers including former chief ministers Narayan Rane (Maharashtra) and Sarbananda Sonowal (Assam).

Rane was the first to take oath. The 69-year-old Maharashtra leader was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 2018.

After Rane, Sonowal took oath of office and secrecy in English. The 58-year-old leader has earlier served as Union Minister of State (Independent charge) for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship; and Sports and Youth Affairs under Prime Minister Modi.

Congress-turned-BJP leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, a Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh, also took oath as a Cabinet minister. The 50-year-old leader has been Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power and Union Minister of State for Commerce and Communications in the earlier UPA government.

Lok Sabha MP from Tikamgarh in Madhya Pradesh Virendra Kumar, Rajya Sabha MP from Odisha Ashwini Vaishnaw, Rajya Sabha MP from Bihar and JD(U) leader RCP Singh, Lok Sabha MP from Bihar's Hajipur Pashupati Kumar Paras, were also sworn-in as Cabinet ministers.

Bhupendra Yadav, who has been serving in the BJP organisation as a general secretary, was also sworn-in as a Cabinet minister.

Seven ministers promoted to Cabinet ranks

The Central Government on Wednesday promoted seven ministers of state to the Cabinet rank. These include Union Minister Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Kiren Rijiju, Union Minister for Power RK Singh, Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs, and Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Mansukh Mandaviya, Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Parshottam Rupala, Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy and Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur were elevated to the Cabinet level.

Twenty-eight take oath as ministers of state

Among the 43 leaders who took oath of office and secrecy, 28 were sworn-in as ministers of states. Some of these leaders included Meenakshi Lekhi, Anupriya Singh Patel, Rajeev Chandrasekhar and A Narayanswamy, among others. Some of the other ministers of state are: Pankaj Choudhary, Dr Satya Pal Singh Baghel,  Shobha Karandlaje, Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma, Darshana Vikram Jardosh, Annpurna Devi, Kaushal Kishore, Ajay Bhatt, BL Verma, Ajay Kumar, Chauhan Devusinh, Bhagwanth Khuba, Kapil Moreshwar Patil, Pratima Bhoumik, Dr Subhas Sarkar, Dr Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad, Dr Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar, Bishweswar Tudu, Shantanu Thakur, Dr Munjapara Mahendrabhai, John Barla, Dr L Murugan and  Nisith Pramanik.

Sixteen first-time MPs sworn-in as ministers

Of the 36 new inductees, 16 are first-time MPs. These include Narayan Rane, Pashupati Kumar Paras, Annpurna Devi, A Narayanaswamy, Ajay Bhatt, BL Verma, Pratima Bhoumik, Subhas Sarkar, Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad and Rajkumar Ranjan Singh.

The others are Bharati Pravin Pawar, Bishweswar Tudu, Shantanu Thakur, Munjapara Mahendrabhai, John Barla and Nisith Pramanik.

Annpurna Devi, 51, is a Lok Sabha member from Kodarma in Jharkhand. She has also been a four-time MLA from Jharkhand and Bihar A Narayanaswamy, 64, is a Lok Sabha MP for Chitradurg in Karnataka. He has also been a four-times MLA in Karnataka Legislative Assembly. Ajay Bhatt, 60, is a Lok Sabha MP for Nainital-Udhamsingh Nagar in Uttarakhand. He was a three-time MLA in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly.

BL Verma, 59, is a Rajya Sabha MP for Uttar Pradesh while Pratima Bhoumik is a first-time Lok Sabha MP for Tripura West in Tripura. Subhas Sarkar, 67, is a first-term Lok Sabha MP for Bankura in West Bengal, Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad, 64, is a Rajya Sabha MP from Maharashtra and Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, 68, is a Lok Sabha MP for Inner Manipur in Manipur.

Bharati Pravin Pawar, 42, is a Lok Sabha MP for Dindori in Maharashtra. Bishweswar Tudu, 56, is a Lok Sabha MP for Mayurbhanj in Odisha.

Shantanu Thakur, 38, is an MP from Bongaon in West Bengal, 52-year-old Munjapara Mahendrabhai is a Lok Sabha MP from Surendranagar in Gujarat. John Barla, 45, is a Lok Sabha MP from Alipurduars in West Bengal and Nisith Pramanik, 35, is a Lok Sabha MP from Cooch Behar in West Bengal.

You can read detailed profiles of the new ministers in the Modi government here.

Five states bag 25 of 43 ministerial berths

Of the total 43 ministerial berths, more than half went to five states with the maximum eight berths being given to NDA leaders from Uttar Pradesh with an eye on the 2022 Assembly polls.

Leaders from Gujarat got five berths, and four each ministerial berths were given to BJP leaders and allies from West Bengal, Karnataka and Maharashtra.

Bihar got three ministerial berths, followed by two each for Madhya Pradesh and Odisha. One ministerial berth was given to the representatives from 11 states including Manipur and Jharkhand.

Here's the state wise break-up:

The Cabinet expansion is first since the Narendra Modi government returned to power in the 2019 general elections to Lok Sabha. President Ram Nath Kovind is administering the oath of office and secrecy to new members of the Council of Ministers at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Prasad, Javadekar among 12 ministers shown the door

Earlier, four senior Union ministers — Prasad, Javadekar, Vardhan, Pokhriyal — were among 12 ministers who resigned on Wednesday ahead of the cabinet reshuffle. Besides these four, Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister DV Sadananda Gowda, Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar, Minister of State for Education Sanjay Dhotre, Minister of State for Women and Child Development Debasree Chaudhuri, Minister of State for Jal Shakti Rattan Lal Kataria and Minister of State for Environment Babul Supriyo also resigned.

Prasad and Javadekar had also been the face of Cabinet briefings, announcing key Cabinet decisions on several occasions in the past few years. This is the first reshuffle in the Council of Ministers by Prime Minister Modi since he assumed charge for a second term in May 2019. With this reset, Modi has brought in young faces and has also given representation to various social groups and regions in the reshuffle.

With inputs from agencies