Major rejig; 19 new faces, Irani,
Gowda lose crucial portfolios
NEW DELHI, JULY 5 (AGENCIES): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday carried out a major reshuffle of his council of ministers by inducting 19 new faces. Also, the PM dropped five Ministers of State (MoS) and changed the portfolios of various other existing ministers.
All the 19 new ministers sworn in at a solemn function at the Rashtrapati Bhavan are from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) barring RPI leader Ramdas Athawale of Maharashtra and Apna Dal’s Anupriya Patel of Uttar Pradesh.
The ministers were sworn in by President Pranab Mukherjee in the presence of Vice President Hamid Ansari, Modi, BJP President Amit Shah and several union ministers including Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari.
The new ministers are: Faggan Singh Kulaste, S.S. Ahluwalia, Ramesh Chandappa Jigajinagi, Vijay Goel, Ramdas Athawale, Rajen Gohain, Anil Madhav Dave, Parshottam Rupala, M.J. Akbar, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Jaswant Sinh Bhabhor, Mahendra Nath Pandey, Ajay Tamta, Krishna Raj, Mansukh Bhai Mandavia, Anupriya Patel, C.R. Chaudhary, P.P. Chaudhary and Subhas Ramrao Bhamre.
Smriti Irani was moved out of the HRD ministry while senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu was given the additional charge of the I&B ministry.
Vijay Goel became the new Sports Minister while Ananth Kumar got the additional charge of Parliamentary Affairs. Irani will now head the textile ministry while Prakash Javadekar will replace him as the HRD minister.
Newly inducted Anupriya Patel became Minister of State for Health & Family Welfare while MJ Akbar will be MoS External Affairs.
The five Ministers of State who were dropped were Sanwar Lal Jat (Water Resources), Nihalchand (Panchayati Raj), Ram Shankar Katheria (HRD), Mansukh Bhai Vasava (Tribal Affairs) and Mohanbhai Kundaria (Agriculture).
BJP veteran L.K. Advani and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj missed the event but for different reasons. Among the new ministers, 16 are green horns while Goel, S.S. Ahluwalia and Faggan Singh Kulaste have been union ministers earlier.
The strength of Modi’s Council of Ministers now stands at 78, he included.
Modi took over as Prime Minister on May 26, 2014 and first expanded his ministry in November 2014.
