Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi with newly sworn-in Union Ministers Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah at a swearing-in ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on May 30, 2019. (Photo: IANS)

BJP President Amit Shah gets the Home Ministry in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new cabinet and effectively becomes the number 2 in the cabinet.

Rajnath Singh, the Home Minister in the previous Modi government, has been moved across the road from North Block to South Block as the Defence Minister.

He will replace Nirmala Sitharaman who, in the biggest surprise, is the new Finance Minister replacing Arun Jaitley who was not included in the cabinet because of ill health.

Nirmala Sitharaman will be the first woman Finance Minister after Indira Gandhi, when she was the Prime Minister. Sitharaman had achieved a similar feat when she was made the Defence Minister in the previous Modi government.

There was no surprise, however, in the External Affairs Ministry as the inclusion of former Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar and the axing of Sushma Swaraj from the council of ministers left no doubt where he was headed.

The Prime Minister also fulfilled his campaign promise of setting up a Ministry of Jal Shakti to deal with all water-related issues. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, who won from Jodhpur, Rajasthan, will be the first to head the Jal Shakti Ministry.

Among other significant changes, former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank will be the Human Resource Development Minister, replacing Prakash Javedkar who gets back environment, forest and climate change and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

Harsh Vardhan has been made the new Health Minister replacing J.P. Nadda, who was dropped amidst speculations that he could be made the new BJP President as the Himachal Pradesh leader is considered close to Modi.

Uttar Pradesh BJP Chief Mahendra Nath Pandey gets Skill Development, a ministry close to PM’s heart but that has not taken off in the manner it was meant to.

But many ministers have retained their portfolios. Most notable among them is Ravi Shankar Prasad, who continues to be Law Minister and will also be Minister for Communication and Electronics and IT.

Piyush Goyal, who was also in the race to become Finance Minister, retains his Railways portfolio and also gets Commerce and Industry.

Dharmendra Pradhan also retains Petroleum Ministry. His other portfolio is Steel.

Smriti Irani, who defeated Rahul Gandhi in Amethi, has been given Women and Child Development, a ministry held by Maneka Gandhi who was dropped from the council of ministers. Irani will also continue to hold the Textile ministry.

Among the allies, Arvind Sawant of Shiv Sena gets Heavy Industries and Harsimrat Badal, the sole Akali Dal Minister, retains Food Processing Industry.

 

Here is the list of ministers and their portfolios:

 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Prime Minister and in charge of Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions; Department of Atomic Energy; Department of Space; all important policy issues; and all other portfolios not allocated to any Minister.

Rajnath Singh

Minister for Defence.

Amit Shah

Minister for Home Affairs.

Nitin Jairam Gadkari

Minister for Road Transport and Highways; and Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.

D.V. Sadananda Gowda

Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers.

Nirmala Sitharaman

Minister for Finance; and Minister for Corporate Affairs.

Ram Vilas Paswan

Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.

Narendra Singh Tomar

Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare; Minister for Rural Development; and Minister for Panchayati Raj.

Ravi Shankar Prasad

Minister for Law and Justice; Minister for Communications; and Minister for Electronics and Information Technology.

Harsimrat Kaur Badal

Minister for Food Processing Industries.

Thaawar Chand Gehlot

Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment.

S. Jaishankar

Minister for External Affairs.

Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’

Minister for Human Resources Development.

Arjun Munda

Minister for Tribal Affairs.

Smriti Irani

Minister for Women and Child Development; and Minister for Textiles.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan

Minister for Health and Family Welfare; Minister for Science and Technology; and Minister for Earth Sciences.

Prakash Javadekar

Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change; and Minister for Information and Broadcasting.

Piyush Goyal

Minister for Railways; and Minister for Commerce and Industry.

Dharmendra Pradhan

Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas; and Minister for Steel.

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi

Minister for Minority Affairs.

Pralhad Joshi

Minister for Parliamentary Affairs; Minister for Coal; and Minister for Mines.

Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey

Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

Arvind Sawant

Minister for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprise.

Giriraj Singh

Minister for Animal Husbandry, Dairy and Fisheries.

Gajendra Singh Shekhawat

Minister for ‘Jal Shakti’.

Ministers of State (Independent Charge)

 

Santosh Kumar Gangwar

Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Labour and Employment.

Rao Inderjit Singh

Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation; and Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Planning.

Shripad Yesso Naik

Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH); and Minister of State in the Ministry of Defence.

Dr. Jitendra Singh

Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region; Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office; Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions; Minister of State in the Department of Atomic Energy; and Minister of State in the Department of Space.

Kiren Rijiju

Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Minority Affairs.

Prahalad Singh Patel

Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Culture; and Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Tourism.

Raj Kumar Singh

Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Power; Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

Hardeep Singh Puri

Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs; Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Civil Aviation; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Mansukh L. Mandaviya

Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Shipping; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers.

 

Ministers of State

 

Faggansingh Kulaste

Minister of State in the Ministry of Steel.

Ashwini Kumar Choubey

Minister of State in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal

Minister of State in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises.

General (Retd.) V. K. Singh

Minister of State in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.

Krishan Pal

Minister of State in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

Raosaheb Danve

Minister of State in the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.

G. Kishan Reddy

Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Purushottam Rupala

Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.

Ramdas Athawale

Minister of State in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti

Minister of State in the Ministry of Rural Development.

Babul Supriyo

Minister of State in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

Sanjeev Kumar Balyan

Minister of State in the Ministry of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries.

Dhotre Sanjay Shamrao

Minister of State in the Ministry of Human Resource Development; Minister of State in the Ministry of Communications; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

Anurag Thakur

Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

Suresh Angadi

Minister of State in the Ministry of Railways.

Nityanand Rai

Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Ratanlal Kataria

Minister of State in the Ministry of Jal Shakti; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

V. Muraleedharan

Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs.

Renuka Singh Saruta

Minister of State in the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

Som Parkash

Minister of State in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Rameswar Teli

Minister of State in the Ministry of Food Processing Industries.

Pratap Chandra Sarangi

Minister of State in the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries.

Kailash Choudhary

Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.

Debasree Chaudhuri

Minister of State in the Ministry of Women and Child Development.