BJP president Amit Shah was sworn in as Union minister after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rajnath Singh, but by all indications he will be the second most powerful person in the cabinet. His entry into the cabinet is likely to set off changes in the party.
The big question after the ceremony was who would be the next party president. J.P. Nadda's name is doing the round as he was not part of those who took oath on Thursday. Nadda's name was even considered when Rajnath Singh had joined the cabinet in 2014 and had to relinquish the post under one post one person rule.
There are questions over who would be the speaker in Lok Sabha. As Santosh Gangwar, the MP who won elections eight times and is the senior most in terms of tenure, has joined as minister, he will not be the speaker. His name was doing the rounds. Maneka Gandhi, who also has eight Lok Sabha victories to her credit, has been dropped. She was a minister in the last government.
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Modi cabinet's swearing in witnessed dropping of several ministers as many new faces were given a chance. Among those dropped were Sushma Swaraj, J.P. Nadda, Radhamohan Singh, Suresh Prabhu, Jayant Sinha, Rajyavardhan Rathore and S.S. Ahluwalia.
Among the first time ministers in Modi government are S. Jaishankar, Ramesh Pokhriyal, Prahlad Joshi, Arvind Sawant, Arjun Munda, G. Kishan Reddy, Faggan Singh Kulaste, Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre, Anurag Singh Thakur, Nityanand Rai, Ratanlal Kataria, V. Muraleedharan, Som Prakash, Rameshwar Teli, Pratap Chandra Sarangi and Debashree Chaudhary.
As Modi had given chance to many first timers including adequate MPs from tribal and dalit communities, it was a message about the mandate from the poor people who had voted for the BJP. The nomination of Pratap Chandra Sarangi, the "poorest MP" who was elected from Balasore, Odisha, was a big pointer in that direction. Sarangi, who is already talked about in the social media for his humble origins, got huge cheers from the audience during the swearing in.
The NDA allies leaders who have taken oath included Ram Vilvas Paswan, Harsimrat Badal and Arvind Sawant. The JD(U) didn't join the cabinet.
The biggest surprise was nomination of S. Jaishankar into the cabinet. The entry of a specialist who is not even part of the Rajya Sabha is aimed at ensuring effective governance.
In fact, Modi has expressed faith in inducting many former bureaucrats-turned-MPs as ministers. Hardeep Puri, a former diplomat, who was earlier a minister but lost Amritsar Lok Sabha elections, has been repeated. Others include R.K. Singh, IPS, Gen V.K. Singh (former Army chief), and Arjun Ram Meghwal and Som Prakash, both are former IAS officers. Prakash was elected MP from Hoshiarpur, Punjab.
This shows that Modi government will aim to ensure effective delivery of services to people through its flagship schemes. The beneficiaries of the central schemes had voted for the BJP.
The five women ministers who were sworn in on Thursday are Nirmala Sitharaman, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Smriti Irani, Nirajan Jyoti and Debashree Chaudhary.
Modi and Shah have given representation to states particularly those where the BJP wants to expand aggressively and elections are due. From Haryana, where the BJP won all the 10 seats, three have been made ministers. The state goes to election later this year.
Another message from this cabinet formation is that Modi has rewarded party chiefs in several states where the BJP performed well. Those include Mahendra Pandey from Uttar Praddsh, Nityanand Rai from Bihar, Kishan Reddy from Telangana and Dadarao Danve from Maharashtra.
