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.