Old team, new beginnings: Big four intact, PM Modi sends big message

aloksaideep@gmail.com | Jul 22 2024 , 11:35 am

Amit Shah retains home, Rajnath Singh stays defence minister, Nirmala Sitharaman continues in finance and S Jaishankar keeps external affairs portfolio, setting at rest speculation that the CCS could see new members.

His core team of ministers have also retained their portfolios. Nitin Gadkari (road transport and highways), Piyush Goyal (commerce and industry), Dharmendra Pradhan (education), Sarbananda Sonowal (ports, shipping and waterways), Virendra Kumar (social justice and empowerment), Ashwini Vaishnaw (railways, electronics and information technology), Hardeep Puri (petroleum and natural gas) and Bhupender Yadav (environment, forest and climate change) will continue running the ministries they were handling in the last five years. Some of them have shed additional portfolios that were allocated when others left the council of ministers in the past.

Vaishnaw has also got charge of the information and broadcasting ministry, which was headed by Anurag Thakur in the last administration.

There is some continuity in the team of ministers of state (MoS) with independent charge as well. Rao Inderjit Singh (statistics and programme implementation, planning); Jitendra Singh (science and technology, earth sciences, PMO), Arjun Ram Meghwal (law and justice, parliamentary affairs) will continue with the same responsibilities with minor changes.
Incoming heavyweights with important portfolios include JP Nadda, whose stint as BJP president is ending. He will head the health and family welfare ministry that he was in charge of before moving to take charge of the party. He has also been given charge of chemicals and fertilizers. Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been entrusted with agriculture, farmers' welfare and rural development. Chouhan had won praise in the past for his farm welfare measures in Madhya Pradesh. These ministries were handled by Narendra Singh Tomar before he shifted to MP and became speaker of the Vidhan Sabha there.

Former Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal has been given charge of housing and urban affairs as well as power. With Smriti Irani losing the elections from Amethi, Annpurna Devi steps in as minister of women and child development.

Kiren Rijiju, whose wings appeared to have been clipped in the last government, has made a comeback with charge of parliamentary affairs. His role will be important as the BJP lacks a majority in the Lower House on its own and depends on its NDA allies to make up the numbers. He will also head the minority affairs ministry that Irani was in charge of. Gujarat BJP chief CR Patil will handle the Jal Shakti ministry.

The BJP sought to accommodate its NDA allies. Former Karnataka chief minister and JDS leader HD Kumaraswamy got the heavy industries and steel ministries, which have usually gone to allies in previous UPA and NDA dispensations. HAM-S president and former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi got the micro, small and medium enterprises ministry while Rajiv Ranjan Singh (JDU) will handle panchayati raj as well as fisheries, animal husbandry and dairying.

LJP-RV chief Chirag Paswan got charge of the food processing industries ministry. K Ram Mohan Naidu, TDP leader and the youngest member of Modi's team at 36 years, will head the civil aviation ministry, taking over from Jyotiraditya Scindia. The portfolio has lost some of its heft after the privatisation of Air India but is seen as a good training ground for Naidu.

Some of the ministers from the last term have had portfolios shuffled. Pralhad Joshi will now be minister of consumer affairs, food and public distribution along with new and renewable energy. Giriraj Singh moves to textiles. Scindia gets communications, development of the northeastern region. Others include Gajendra Shekhawat (culture and tourism) and Mansukh Mandaviya (labour and employment, youth affairs and sports). Telangana BJP chief G Kishan Reddy will head the coal and mines ministry. With Arjun Munda losing the Lok Sabha polls, Jual Oram is back as head of the tribal affairs ministry.

Among the allies, Jayant Chaudhary (RLD) is minister of state (independent charge) of skill development and entrepreneurship as well as education, while Jadhav Prataprao is minister of state (independent charge) of Ayush and MoS for health and family welfare.

While the NDA council of ministers does not have any Muslim face, it has accommodated Sikh and Christian leaders to show balance. Ravneet Singh Bittu, the Sikh leader who defected from Congress to BJP only to lose from Ludhiana, has been made minister of state for food processing and railways. George Kurian, BJP Kerala unit general secretary, is MoS, minority affairs and fisheries, animal husbandry and dairying.

Jitin Prasada, the UP minister and former union minister in the Congress-led UPA, is a junior minister in the commerce and industry as well as electronics and IT departments.

Suresh Gopi, who stirred a controversy over reported remarks that he didn't want to be a minister, is MoS for petroleum and natural gas along with tourism. He subsequently said the comments had been misrepresented.

West Bengal BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar is junior minister for education and development of the northeastern region while former Telangana party head Bandi Sanjay Kumar is junior minister for home affairs.