Prime Minister Narendra Modi today revamped his cabinet to include prominent leaders like Jyotiraditya Scindia, Narayan Rane, Pashupati Kumar Paras, Bhupender Yadav, Anupriya Patel, Shobha Karandlaje, Meenakshi Lekhi, Ajay Bhatt, Anurag Thakur, even as he expanded the council of ministers with 25 new faces.
The new council of ministers consists of four former chief ministers, 18 former ministers of state, 39 former MLAs and 23 MPs who have been elected for three or more terms.
At least 12 cabinet members, including IT and health ministers, resigned ahead of the reshuffle to make way for their colleagues.
The new cabinet will have 77 ministers, up from the current figure of 52.
The move comes ahead of elections in important states, including the crucial battleground of Uttar Pradesh.
Interestingly, 13 of the 43 are lawyers, six doctors, five engineers and seven civil servants. There are 11 women in the new council of ministers. Fourteen ministers are below the age of 50, which brings down the average age of the cabinet to 58.
Cabinet ministers
1. Narayan Tatu Rane
2. Sarbananda Sonowal
3. Dr Virendra Kumar
4. Jyotiraditya M Scindia
5. Ramchandra Prasad Singh
6. Ashwini Vaishnaw
7. Pashu Pati Kumar Paras
8. Kiren Rijiju
9. Raj Kumar Singh
10. Hardeep Singh Puri
11. Mansukh Mandaviya
12. Bhupender Yadav
13. Parshottam Rupala
14. G Kishan Reddy
15. Anurag Singh Thakur
Ministers of state
1. Pankaj Choudhary
2. Anupriya Singh Patel
3. Dr Satya Pal Singh Baghel
4. Rajeev Chandrasekhar
5. Shobha Karandlaje
6. Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma
7. Darshana Vikram Jardosh
8. Meenakshi Lekhi
9. Annpurna Devi
10. A Narayanaswamy
11. Kaushal Kishore
12. Ajay Bhatt
13. B L Verma
14. Ajay Kumar
15. Chauhan Devusinh
16. Bhagwanth Khuba
17. Kapil Moreshwar Patil
18. Pratima Bhoumik
19. Dr Subhas Sarkar
20. Dr Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad
21. Dr Rajkumar Ranjan Singh
22. Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar
23. Bishweswar Tudu
24. Shantanu Thakur
25. Dr Munjapara Mahendrabhai
26. Shri John Barla
27. Dr L. Murugan
28. Nisith Pramanik
The President administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new members of the Council of Ministers at a ceremony held in the Rashtrapati Bhavan, today.
The President, as advised by the prime minister, also accepted the resignation of the following members of the council of ministers, with immediate effect:
1. DV Sadananda Gowda
2. Ravi Shankar Prasad
3. Thaawarchand Gehlot
4. Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’
5. Dr. Harsh Vardhan
6. Prakash Javadekar
7. Santosh Kumar Gangwar
8. Babul Supriyo
9. Dhotre Sanjay Shamrao
10. Rattan Lal Kataria
11. Pratap Chandra Sarangi
12. Debasree Chaudhuri