A day after the oath-taking ceremony of PM Modi and his Council of Ministers, the portfolios have finally been announced. A total of 58 parliamentarians took oath yesterday and now hours after their oath taking, the ministries have been allocated to the respective parliamentarians, based on their profile and their experience.
Outgoing BJP President Amit Shah, who has been instrumental in overhauling the fortunes of BJP since 2013, has been allocated the much coveted Home Ministry. This comes as no surprise since Amit Shah has had immense experience as the Home Minister of Gujarat. His election as the Home Minister is just the validation of the popular mandate of millions, who vociferously demanded the same for him.
In an interesting turn of events, the previous Home Minister, Rajnath Singh will now serve as the Defence Minister for the current term. Having successfully managed the Home Ministry with elan, Rajnath Singh will now replace Nirmala Sitharaman as the Defence Minister. It would be interesting to see if he manages to handle the portfolio with the same alacrity as his predecessors Nirmala Sitharaman and the deceased minister Manohar Parrikar.
Another interesting promotion is that of Nirmala Sitharaman as the Finance Minister. With this, she will also become the first woman to hold the position of Finance Minister. While some are a bit surprised, Nirmala is extremely qualified for the post, with masters in Economics from JNU, and having held the Ministry of Commerce before. She will now aim to step well into the shoes of her predecessor Arun Jaitley, who was opted out due to health reasons.
Nitin Gadkari has maintained his previous department as Minister of Road Transport and Highways, apart from holding the Ministry of Shipping and Water Resources. Smriti Zubin Irani, who has created history by defeating Rahul Gandhi from the traditional Congress bastion of Amethi, has now been allotted the Ministry of Women Empowerment and Child Development, apart from her previous Ministry of Textiles.
Ex-Diplomat S Jaishankar, who surprised one and all by taking oath as Cabinet Minister, has been accorded the Ministry of External Affairs. Famous for handling matters such as Doklam dispute with China, S Jaishankar will now take the place of Sushma Swaraj, who had served on this post in the previous NDA term.
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi has been promoted as the Minister of Minority Affairs from his Minister of State rank regarding the same, while former Minister of State for Home Affairs and influential BJP stalwart Kiren Rijiju has been handed over the important portfolio of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.
Following is a detailed list of the Union Council of Ministers, as released by the media cell of the Rashtrapati Bhawan:
https://presidentofindia.nic.in/press-release-detail.htm?1616
The first meeting of the new Modi Cabinet will take place today.