As many as 43 ministers took oath on Wednesday evening as Prime Minister Narendra Modi reshuffled the Council of Ministers for the first time since he assumed charge for a second term in May 2019. The cabinet reshuffle came amid mounting criticism over the government’s handling of the second wave of coronavirus and spiking inflation.
Fifteen Cabinet ministers and 28 Ministers of State, comprising new faces and those elevated, were sworn in at a ceremony held in the Darbar Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhavan. While most of the members took oath in Hindi, a few of them took it in English.
With this, the strength of the Modi cabinet rose to 77. Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sarbananda Sonowal and Narayan Tatu Rane were among the prominent leaders who got cabinet berth.
While the prime minister has brought in several young faces and given representation to various social groups and regions in the reshuffle, several existing MoSs have been promoted to the Council of Ministers. However, the ministers of major four portfolios—home, finance, defence, external affairs—remained unchanged.
Full list of Union ministers who took oath on Wednesday
Narayan Tatu Rane, Rajya Sabha MP and former Maharashtra chief minister
Sarbananda Sonowal, Lok Sabha MP and former Assam chief minister
Dr Virendra Kumar, BJP MP from Madhya Pradesh
Jyotiraditya Scindia, Rajya Sabha MP & BJP leader
Ramchandra Prasad Singh, Rajya Sabha MP & JD-U leader
Ashwini Vaishnav, Rajya Sabha MP from Odisha and former IAS officer
Prabhu Pati Kumar Paras, Lok Sabha MP from Bihar
Kiran Rijiju, current MoS, Ministry of Youth Affairs
Raj Kumar Singh, current MoS (Independent charge)
Hardeep Singh Puri, current Minister, Housing and Urban Affairs
Mansukh Mandaviya, Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat
Bhupender Yadav, Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan
Parshottam Rupala, current MoS, Agriculture
G. Kishan Reddy, current MoS, Home Affairs
Anurag Thakur, current MoS, Finance
Pankaj Choudhary, Lok Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh
Anupriya SIngh Patel, Lok Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh
S.P. Singh Baghel, Lok Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh
Rajiv Chandrasekhar, Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka
Shobha Karandlaje, Lok Sabha MP from Karnataka
Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma, Lok Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh
Dharshana Vikram Jardosh, Lok Sabha MP from Gujarat
Meenakshi Lekhi, MP from Delhi
Annupurna Devi, Lok Sabha MP from Jharkhand
A. Narayanaswamy, Lok Sabha MP from Karnataka
Kaushal Kishore, Lok Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh
Ajay Bhatt, Lok Sabha MP from Uttarakhand
B.L. Verma, Rajya Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh
Ajay Kumar, Lok Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh
Chauhan Devusinh, Lok Sabha MP from Gujarat
Bhagwanth Khuba, Lok Sabha MP from Karnataka
Kapil Patil, Lok Sabha MP from Maharashtra
Sushri Pratima Bhoumik, Lok Sabha MP from Tripura
Dr Subhash Sarkar, Lok Sabha MP from West Bengal
Dr Bhagwat Krishanrao Karad, Rajya Sabha MP from Maharashtra
Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, Lok Sabha MP from Manipur
Bharati Pravin Pawar, Lok Sabha MP from Maharashtra
Bishweswar Tudu, Lok Sabha MP from Odisha
Shantanu Thakur, Lok Sabha MP from West Bengal
Munjapara Mahendrabhai, Lok Sabha MP from Gujarat
John Barla, Lok Sabha MP from West Bengal
L. Murugan, from Tamil Nadu
Nisith Pramanik, Lok Sabha MP from West Bengal
Earlier in the day, at least 12 Union ministers, including IT Minister Ravishankar Prasad, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ and Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda resigned from the cabinet ahead of the reshuffle.
Others who resigned included: Thaawarchand Gehlot, Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Babul Supriyo, Dotre Sanjay Shamro, Rattan Lal Kataria, Pratap Chandra Sarangi and Debasree Chaudhuri.
