What are Prime Minister Narendra Modi's portfolios? Key takeaways from Cabinet allocation

 

What are Prime Minister Narendra Modi's portfolios? Key takeaways from Cabinet allocation

Narendra Modi Cabinet: Government sticks to coalitionalism and adds some new faces to the Council of Ministers Prime Minister Narendra Modi's third government on Monday preferred continuity over coalitionalism, allocating key Cabinet portfolios to prominent ministers of the previous government such as Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, S Jaishankar and Nirmala Sitharaman. But the Bharatiya Janata Party appears to have adapted to the new reality and given its allies greater representation in the Council of Ministers.

Here are some key takeaways from the allocation of Cabinet portfolios:

The composition of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) remains unchanged in the new NDA government: Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar retain defence, domestic, finance and foreign affairs portfolios.

Several new faces have also been inducted, including BJP leaders JP Nadda, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Manohar Lal Khattar. JP Nadda will take over the Health portfolio. Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been appointed Agriculture Minister. Khattar has been appointed Housing and Urban Development Minister and Energy Minister.

Ministers Mansukh Mandaviya, Prahlad Joshi, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Gajendra Singh Shekhwat and Kiren Rijiju have had their portfolios changed. Mandaviya has taken charge of the Ministry of Labour and Employment and the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. Prahlad Joshi is now the Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Minister for New and Renewable Energy. Scindia has been given charge of the Ministries of Communications and North Eastern Regional Development. Gajendra Singh Shekhwat has been appointed in charge of the Ministries of Culture and Tourism. Kiren Rijiju is the new Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and Minister for Minority Affairs. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in charge of the Ministries of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space. He is also in charge of the departments not assigned to ministers.

Nitin Gadkari retained Minister of Road Transport and Highways Sarbananda Sonowal (Ports, Shipping and Waterways), Minister of Environment, Forests and Climate Change Bhupendra Yadav and Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Virendra Kumar. Ashwini Vaishnav retained his position as Minister of Railways, Electronics and Information Technology and will take on the new portfolio of Information, Broadcasting and Electronics.

Piyush Goyal retained his position as Minister of Commerce and Industry, Dharmendra Pradhan as Union Minister of Education and Hardeep Singh Puri retained his portfolio of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

Telugu Desam Party's Kinjarap Ram Mohan Naidu and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) leader Chirag Paswan were inducted as ministers with the portfolios of Civil Aviation and Food Processing respectively.

Shiv Sena's Jadhav Pratap Rao Ganpatrao has been appointed Minister of State (Independent Chief) for Ayush and Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare. Janata Dal (Secular) leader HD Kumaraswamy, a former Chief Minister, has been given the ministries of Heavy Industries, State Enterprises and Steel.

Hindustani Awam Morcha chairman Jitan Ram has been appointed head of the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. Janata Dal (United) leader Rajiv Ranjan Singh (Lalan Singh) has been given the ministries of Panchayati Raj and Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying. Jayant Chaudhary has been appointed independent charge in the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

Penmasani Chandra Sekhar of the TDP has been appointed as Minister of State for Rural Development and Communications and Ram Nath Thakur of the Janata Dal (United) has been appointed Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.

Members of Parliament appearing in Parliament for the first time include Suresh Gopi of the Bharatiya Janata Party as Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas and Minister for Tourism, and Ravneet Singh Bittu as Minister for Food Processing Industries and Minister for Railways.