NEW DELHI: A day after taking oath of office for a historic
third consecutive term
, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday assigned
portfolios
to his 71
council of ministers
.
The new Union Cabinet held its first meeting at the PM's residence in the evening.
Cabinet ministers
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi
- Rajnath Singh - Ministry of Defence
- Amit Shah - Ministry of Home Affairs
- Nitin Gadkari - Ministry of Road Transport and Highways
- JP Nadda - Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
- Shivraj Singh Chouhan - Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Rural Development, Ministry of Panchayati Raj
- Nirmala Sitharaman - Ministry of Finance
- Subrahmanyam Jaishankar - Ministry of External Affairs
- Manohar Lal Khattar - Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs
- JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy
- Piyush Goyal - Ministry of Commerce and Industry
- Dharmendra Pradhan - Ministry of Education
- HAM leader Jitan Ram Manjhi - Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises
- JD(U) leader Lalan Singh
- Sarbananda Sonowal - Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways
- Virendra Kumar
- TDP leader Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu - Ministry of Civil Aviation
- Prahlad Joshi - Ministry of New and Renewable Energy
- Jual Oram
- Giriraj Singh
- Ashwini Vaishnaw - Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
- Jyotiraditya Scindia - Ministry of Communications
- Bhupendra Yadav - Ministry of Environment and Forests
- Gajendra Singh Shekhawat - Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Culture
- Annpurna Devi
- Kiren Rijiju - Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs
- Hardeep Singh Puri - Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Ministry of Power
- Mansukh Mandaviya - Ministry of Labour & Employment,
- G Kishan Reddy
- LJP(RV) Chirag Paswan - Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports
- C R Patil
Ministers of State (Independent Charge)
Rao Inderjit Singh
Jitendra Singh
Arjun Ram Meghwal
Prataprao Ganpatrao Jadhav
RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary
Ministers of State
Jitin Prasada
Shripad Yesso Naik
Pankaj Chaudhary
Krishan Pal
RPI(A) leader Athawale Ramdas Bandu
Ram Nath Thakur
Nityanand Rai
Anupriya Singh Patel
V Somanna
TDP MP Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani
S.
P. Singh Baghel
Shobha Karandlaje
Kirti Vardhan Singh
BL Verma
Shantanu Thakur
Suresh Gopi
L. Murugan
Ajay Tamta - Ministry of Road Transport and Highways
Bandi Sanjay Kumar
Kamlesh Paswan
Bhagirath Choudhary
Satish Chandra Dubey
Sanjay Seth
Ravneet Singh Bittu
Durga Das Uikey
Raksha Nikhil Khadse
Sukanta Majumdar
Savitri Thakur
Tokhan Sahu
Raj Bhushan Choudhary
Bhupathi Raju Srinivasa Varma
Harsh Malhotra - Ministry of Road Transport and Highways
Nimuben Bambhania
Murlidhar Mohol
George Kurian
Pabitra Margherita
Mix of old hands and new faces
The
PM Modi 3.0
council of ministers include representation from all corners of the country as well as social groups.
It has 27 ministers from Other Backward Classes, 10 from Scheduled Castes, 5 from Scheduled Tribes and 5 from minorities.
A record 18 senior ministers will be heading ministries.
Modi Cabinet 3.0 includes 43 ministers who have served 3 terms or higher in Parliament, with 39 having been ministers in central government before. The list includes multiple former chief ministers and 34 ministers who have served in state legislatures and 23 having worked as ministers in states.
There are also 33 first-timers in the ranks. Seven first-time ministers in the Modi government belong to the allies: TDP's K Rammohan Naidu and Chandrasekhar Pemmasani; JDU's Lalan Singh and Ram Nath Thakur, RLD's Jayant Chaudhary, LJP's Chirag Paswan and HD Kumaraswamy of the JD(S).
The new faces also include Suresh Gopi, the actor-turned-politician who scripted history by becoming the first BJP MP from Kerala.
BJP's NDA partners have got five cabinet ministerial berths this time, as against none in the outgoing government, given the party's dependence on allies for a majority in the Lok Sabha. While the outgoing council of ministers had two ministers of state from BJP's allies -- Anupriya Patel of the Apna Dal (S) and Ramdas Athawale of the RPI(A) -- this time, there are two ministers of states with independent charge and four ministers of state (MoS).
Nine short of full strength
As per the Constitution of India, the total strength of the council of ministers cannot exceed 15% of the total number of Lok Sabha MPs.
The strength of the 18th Lok Sabha is 543 members and hence the council of ministers cannot be more than 81.
The 2024 Lok Sabha election results were announced by the Election Commission of India on June 4, the BJP won 240 seats and the Congress 99 seats. BJP had won 303 seats in the 2019 general elections and 282 seats in the 2014 general elections.
The NDA's tally is 293 seats -- well above the majority mark of 272 -- and opposition INDIA bloc 234.
First session
As per media reports citing sources, the first session of the 18th Lok Sabha will begin from June 18 with President Droupadi Murmu expected to address a joint sitting of both Houses on June 21.
The MPs in the Lower House are expected to take oaths on June 18-19, following which the Speaker will be elected on June 20.
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