72-member-union-council-of-ministers-sworn-in

Narendra Modi was sworn in as Prime Minister at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday, becoming only the second leader after Jawaharlal Nehru to secure a third consecutive term.

 

The 72-member Union Council of Ministers, administered the oath of office by President Droupadi Murmu, includes 30 Cabinet Ministers and five Ministers of State with independent charge.

 

With the BJP no longer holding a majority in the Lok Sabha and reliant on allies such as the TDP and JD(U), the NDA Council of Ministers reflects both continuity and change. Veteran leaders Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, S. Jaishankar, and Piyush Goyal were among 19 retained as Cabinet Ministers.

 

Other returning Cabinet members include Dharmendra Pradhan, Pralhad Joshi, Sarbananda Sonowal, Virendra Kumar, Giriraj Singh, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Kiren Rijiju, Hardeep Singh Puri, Mansukh Mandaviya, Bhupender Yadav, and G. Kishan Reddy.

 

New entrants to the Cabinet include J.P. Nadda, whose term as BJP president ends this month, former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, former Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, and Gujarat BJP president C.R. Paatil. Annapurna Devi, previously a Minister of State, was promoted to Cabinet rank. Jual Oram, a minister in Modi’s first term, was also inducted as a Cabinet Minister.

 

The five Ministers of State with independent charge are BJP’s Rao Inderjit Singh, Jitendra Singh, Arjun Ram Meghwal, along with Shiv Sena’s Prataprao Jadhav and RLD’s Jayant Chaudhary.

 

Alliance partners in the Cabinet include former Karnataka Chief Minister and JD(S) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy, TDP’s K. Ram Mohan Naidu, JD(U)’s Rajiv Ranjan (Lalan Singh), LJP’s Chirag Paswan, and HAM’s Jitan Ram Manjhi.

 

The swearing-in ceremony was attended by thousands of dignitaries, including leaders from seven neighboring countries, former President Ram Nath Kovind, Governors, Chief Ministers, Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, Bollywood stars, business leaders, and spiritual gurus. Opposition representation included Congress president and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge.

 

Notable attendees among alliance partners were TDP’s N. Chandrababu Naidu, Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar, Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde, NCP’s Ajit Pawar, and JanaSena Party leader Pawan Kalyan.

 

Former Cabinet ministers Anurag Thakur, Narayan Rane, and Purushottam Rupala, who won their Lok Sabha seats but were not included in this government, were absent. Others who were dropped from the Cabinet, having lost in the elections, include R.K. Singh, Mahendra Nath Pandey, Smriti Irani, and Arjun Munda.