Modi’s NDA govt starts Term 3; 30 Cabinet posts in 72-member Union Council of Ministers

The Cabinet will hold its first meeting at 5 pm Monday and portfolios are expected to be announced before that.

With the BJP no longer in majority in Lok Sabha and dependent on allies including TDP and JD(U), the NDA Council of Ministers signalled 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.

President Droupadi Murmu, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi with foreign delegates at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi, Sunday, June 9, 2024. (Express photo by Renuka Puri)

Others back in Cabinet were 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 in the Cabinet included J P Nadda, whose term as BJP president ends this month, and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, former Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Gujarat BJP president C R Paatil.

Annapurna Devi, who was a Minister of State in Modi’s previous term, found a Cabinet berth. Jual Oram, who was a minister in Modi’s first term, was inducted as a Cabinet Minister.

The five Ministers of State (independent charge) are BJP’s Rao Inderjit Singh, Jitendra Singh, Arjun Ram Meghwal (all three held the same position in Modi 2.0), Shiv Sena’s Buldhana MP Prataprao Jadhav and RLD’s Jayant Chaudhary.

Leaders of alliance partners in the Cabinet included former Karnataka Chief Minister and JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy,; TDP’s K Ram Mohan Naidu, a three-time MP from Srikakulam; JD(U)’s Rajiv Ranjan alias Lalan Singh; LJP’s Chirag Paswan; and HAM’s Jitan Ram Manjhi.

There are a total of 38 new faces – 11 in the Cabinet, 2 Ministers of State (independent charge) and 25 Ministers of State. The strength of the last Cabinet was 26. There were three Ministers of State with independent charge and 42 Ministers of State.

President Droupadi Murmu hosted a banquet at Rashtrapati Bhavan in honour of the leaders of neighbouring countries attending the swearing-in-ceremony of the Prime Minister of India. (Express Photo)

There are 7 women in the new Council of Ministers, two of them – Nirmala Sitharaman and Annapurna Devi – in the Cabinet. And, five are MoS: Anupriya Patel, Shobha Karandlaje, Raksha Khadse, Savitri Thakur and Nimuben Jayantibhai Bambhaniya.

In attendance were an estimated 10,000 dignitaries – this was the largest such event in the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan – including leaders of seven countries from the neighbourhood: Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe; Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu; Seychelles Vice-President Ahmed Afif; Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina; Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth; Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’; and, Bhutan Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay.

Also present were former President Ram Nath Kovind, Governors, Chief Ministers, Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, actors including Shah Rukh Khan and Rajinikanth, captains of Indian industry and spiritual gurus.

The Opposition was represented by Congress president and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge.

Leaders of alliance partners including 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 were present.

Among the former Cabinet ministers who won their Lok Sabha seats but did not find a place in this government were Anurag Thakur from Himachal Pradesh, Narayan Rane from Maharashtra and Purushottam Rupala from Gujarat. Others who were dropped from the Cabinet included R K Singh, Mahendra Nath Pandey, Smriti Irani and Arjun Munda – all of them lost in the elections.