New Delhi [India], July 8 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday made a major reshuffle of his ministry with Mansukh Mandaviya as health minister, Kiren Rijiju as law minister, Dharmendra Pradhan as education minister and Jyotiraditya Scindia as civil aviation minister. and expanded.
Two years after the BJP-led government came to power in its second term and amid the ongoing fight against COVID-19, some ministers were dropped and 15 cabinet ministers and several state ministers inducted . Seven ministers of the state were promoted to cabinet rank.
Home Minister Amit Shah is also a minister in the newly created Ministry of Cooperation. The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, which was earlier held by Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, has been allotted to former Maharashtra Chief Minister Narayan Rane.
Former IAS officer Ashwini Vaishnav has been appointed Minister of Railways, Minister of Communications and Minister of Electronics and Information Technology.
The expansion saw more representation in the states that will go to polls next year, including Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, and is apparently aimed at inducting more young talent into the government.
Smriti Irani remains as the Minister of Women and Child Development, while she has the Textiles portfolio given to Piyush Goyal, who continues as Minister of Commerce and Industry and Minister of Consumer Affairs. Earlier, he also held the portfolio of Railways.
While the representation of OBC, SC and youth has increased, the average age of the cabinet has decreased. These changes were made a few days before the monsoon session of Parliament.
43 ministers, including seven who were promoted as cabinet ministers, took the oath of office at a ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan held in line with the protocols related to COVID-19.
In this exercise that lasted for several months, some ministers held multiple portfolios, which led to more NDA allies joining the government. Members of the JD-U and Apna Dal joined the government, while the LJP’s ministerial post, which had fallen vacant due to the death of Ram Vilas Paswan, went to Pashupatikumar Paras.
Ahead of the expansion, 12 union ministers including Ravi Shankar Prasad, Dr Harsh Vardhan, Prakash Javadekar and DV Sadananda Gowda, Thaawarchand Gehlot, Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Babul Supriyo, Sanjay Dhotre, Rattan Lal Kataria, Pratap Chandra Sarangi and Debasree Chaudhuri resigned from their posts.
The government had faced some criticism for its handling of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr Harsh Vardhan had spearheaded the health ministry’s response to the pandemic.
Anurag Thakur, promoted to cabinet rank, was appointed Minister of Information and Broadcasting and Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports. The change in the sports ministry, with Rijiju moving to the law ministry, took place just days before the Tokyo Olympics.
In Bhupendra Yadav, the environment ministry got a new face. The BJP leader was also appointed the Minister of Labor and Environment.
The Ministry of External Affairs appointed a woman minister Meenakshi Lekhi as the Minister of State. She is also the junior minister of culture. Apart from education, Dr. Rajkumar Ranjan Singh has also been appointed as the new Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs.
Former Chief Minister of Assam Sarbananda Sonowal is the Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways and Minister of AYUSH.
The Ministry of Finance and Corporate Affairs also got new junior ministers – Pankaj Choudhary and Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad (Finance) and Anupriya Patel (Commerce and Industry).
Pradhan, who previously held the petroleum portfolio, has been given skill development and entrepreneurship besides education.
General VK Singh (Retd.), who was earlier the Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, is now also the Minister of State for Civil Aviation.
Rajeev Chandrashekhar has been appointed as MoS of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and Electronics and IT.
Virendra Kumar will be the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, Ramchandra Prasad Singh of Steel and Pashupati Kumar Paras of Food Processing.
Hardeep Singh Puri, who has been promoted as a cabinet minister, is the new petroleum and natural gas minister apart from the housing and urban affairs minister.
Mahendra Nath Pandey has been shifted from skill development to heavy industry.
G Kishan Reddy, who has also been promoted, is the Minister of Culture, Tourism and Development of the North Eastern Regions.
While Nityanand Rai remains as the Minister of State for Home, Ajay Kumar and Nishith Pramananki are the new junior ministers in the ministry.
Ajay Bhatt will be the new Minister of State for Defense and Tourism and BL Verma MoS in the Ministry of Cooperation and Donor.
SP Singh Baghel was made Minister of State for Law and Justice, Annapurna Devi and Dr Subhash Sarkar of Education, and Dr Bharti Praveen Pawar of Health and Family Welfare.
After the expansion, the BJP-led government has 12 members from the SC community, including two in the cabinet, eight from the Scheduled Tribes, including three in the cabinet, and over 25 members from the OBC community, including five in the cabinet. .
The number of ministers with professional qualifications has also increased in the cabinet and now has 13 lawyers, six doctors, five engineers and seven civil servants.
Apart from G Kishan Reddy, Kiren Rijiju, Hardeep Singh Puri, Mansukh Mandaviya and Anurag Singh Thakur, Raj Kumar Singh and Parshottam Rupala were elevated as cabinet ministers.
Vaishnav, who is a Rajya Sabha MP from Odisha, has been given the communications and IT portfolios, which were earlier held by Prasad. He has done MBA from Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and MTech from IIT Kanpur. (ANI)
This news has come from ANI and has not been edited since independence.
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