New Delhi: A young team, no dynasty, and marginalisation of the old guard marked the new team of Narendra Modi, who was sworn in as India’s 15th Prime Minister Monday evening. Mr Modi started his innings with a team of 45 ministers, that included 23 Cabinet ministers, 10 ministers of state with independent charge and 12 other ministers of state.
Mr Modi clearly seemed in no mood to waste time as his first Cabinet meeting will be held on Tuesday. Late on Monday evening, at around 11 pm, Mr Modi held a meeting with top PMO officials. While Nripendra Misra will be taking over as principal secretary to the Prime Minister, Ajit Doval is tipped to be national security adviser.
Mr Modi’s core team emerged as the most prominent and powerful faces in the Cabinet. This includes Mr Rajnath Singh, who is likely to be the new home minister, Mr Arun Jaitley, tipped to be the new finance minister, possibly with additional charge of defence, and Mr Nitin Gadkari, poised to take charge of surface transport and shipping. Mr Rajnath Singh will also continue as BJP president.
Ms Sushma Swaraj could be India’s new global face as external affairs minister, while chemicals and fertilisers is likely to be held by Mr Ananth Kumar. The railway ministry could go to Mr Sadanand Gowda.
Ms Swaraj is expected to take charge at the MEA early on Tuesday morning as a series of meetings with the Saarc leaders will be held on Tuesday, including a bilateral meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
The RSS’ stamp on the Modi ministry was evident, with the induction of Radha Mohan Singh from Bihar as a Cabinet minister, and of Sanjeev Baliyan from UP as a minister of state, with the Sangh’s blue-eyed boys Nitin Gadkari and Rajnath Singh in top positions.
