New Delhi, July 7
Effecting a big reset, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday brought in Sarbananda Sonowal, Narayan Rane and Jyotiraditya Scindia as Cabinet ministers while dropping 12 ministers, including Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, IT and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar.
As many as 15 Cabinet ministers, including some new faces, were sworn-in at the swearing in ceremony held in the Darbar Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhawan. While 13 members took oath in Hindi, two took in English.
This is the first reshuffle in the Council of Ministers by Prime Minister Modi since he assumed charge for a second term in May 2019.
Cabinet expansion | Highlights:
* While 36 new ministers sworn in, seven ministers have been given promotion.
* Maharashtra strongman Narayan Tatu Rane first to take oath as Cabinet Minister.
* Former Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal takes oath as Cabinet Minister.
* Seven-time Tikamgarh MP from Madhya Pradesh Virendra Kumar takes oath as Cabinet Minister.
* Former Congress leader from Madhya Pradesh Jyotiraditya Scindia takes oath as Cabinet Minister.
* Ramchandra Prasad Singh, a Rajya Sabha MP from Bihar, takes oath as Cabinet Minister. The former IAS officer is president of the JD-U.
* Ashwini Vaishnaw, a Rajya Sabha MP for Odisha, also a former IAS officer, takes oath. He has a MBA from Wharton School, Pennysylvania University and MTech from IIT Kanpur.
* Pashupati Paras from the breakaway group of LJP takes oath as the Cabinet Minister. LJP leader Chirag Paswan has expressed unhappiness over his inclusion.
* Prominent leader of the BJP from the Northeast, Kiran Rijiju, gets a promotion, takes oath as Cabinet Minister.
* RK Singh gets promotion as Cabinet Minister.
* Rajya Sabha MP and former IFS officer Hardeep Singh Puri gets a promotion as Cabinet Minister in the major reshuffle of the Narendra Modi government 2.0.
* Patel leader from Gujarat Mansukh Mandaviya gets a promotion as Cabinet Minister. A youth leader with ABVP/BYJM roots, he is believed to be important in BJP’s scheme of things on poll-bound Gujarat.
* Bhupender Yadav, seen as Home Minister Amit Shah’s right hand man, sworn in as Cabinet Minister. A Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan, he is known for his leadership across many Parliamentary Committees. Lawyer by profession, he is expected to land a important portfolio.
* Gujarat leader Purushottam Rupala gets a promotion as Cabinet Minister.
* Hyderabad leader G Kishan Reddy, the current minister of state for home and believed to be close to Home Minister Amit Shah, gets a promotion as Cabinet Minister.
* Hamirpur MP Anurag Thakur gets a promotion as Cabinet Minister.
Ministers of State sworn in:
* Six-time UP MP Pankaj Choudhary.
* Anupriya Patel, Apna Dal leader and key to Kurmi votes in UP. She was a minister in the first regime of the PM council.
* Satyapal Singh Baghel sworn in.
* Rajeev Chandrasekhar, a Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka, takes oath. He has a MTech in Computer Science from Illinois Institute of Technology, along with Advanced Management Program from Harvard University.
*Shobha Karandalaje, a close associate of Karnataka CM BS Yeddiyurappa, sworn in.
* UP MP Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma and Surat MP Darshana Vikram Jardosh sworn in.
* New Delhi MP Meenakshi Lekhi sworn in as Minister of State. The two-time Lok Sabha MP is a lawyer by profession.
* Nainital-Uddham Singh Nagar MP Ajay Bhatt sworn in as Minister of State.
* Annpurna Devi (Jharkhand), A Narayanaswamy (Karnataka), Kaushal Kishore (UP) take oath as Union Ministers of State.
* BL Verma (UP), Ajay Kumar (UP), Chauhan Devusinh (Gujarat) sworn in as new Union Ministers of State.
Among the ministers who resigned ahead of the Cabinet expansion included Ravi Shankar Prasad and Prakash Javadekar.
They were among 12 ministers who submitted their resignations to the President.
Earlier, Union ministers Harsh Vardhan and Ramesh Pokhriyal resigned ahead of the cabinet reshuffle.
Earlier, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar, Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal, MoS WCD Deboshree Chaudhary, and Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Sadanand Gowda resigned ahead of the cabinet expansion.
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