New Delhi: Despite the claims of the reshuffle being guided by purely performance, political analysts believe that the selection of new team and promotions to the existing ministers were made after taking into account both political and administrative considerations.
Dharmendra Pradhan, who took oath as a Cabinet minister, has emerged as the party’s face in Odisha and has become one of its prominent leaders as the party has highlighted the “success” of his ministry’s scheme of giving free LPG connections to the poor in its political campaigns.
Odisha is among the states high on the priority list of party chief Amit Shah for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Mr Pradhan’s promotion about 20 months before the Lok Sabha as well as Odisha Assembly polls can be a boost to the party in the coastal state. Both these elections are likely to be held there simultaneously.
Nirmala Sitharaman, for whom it was a double joy as she was promoted to Cabinet rank and given the important defence por-tfolio, is not a political heavyweight but her elevation will give the party a talking point in southern India.
The promotion of Naqvi and the induction of former IAS officer Alphons Kannanthanam may help the saffron party in its minority outreach.
Alphons, whose administrative capabilities had often come in for praise when he was a bureaucrat, is a Christian hailing from Kerala, a state where the BJP has been working hard to emerge as a potent force. The saffron party has been wooing Christ-ians, whose numbers are significant in the state.
Among the nine new ministers, three are Brahmins (Shiv Pratap Shukla, Ashwini Kumar Choubey and Anant Ku-mar Hegde) two Rajputs (R.K. Singh and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat), one Jat (OBC) in Satyapal Singh and Virendra Kumar, a Dalit. Two others are from minority religions — Hardeep Puri, a Sikh and Alphons, a Christian.
Mr Modi has turned the spotlight on Purvanchal or eastern part of Uttar Pradesh, which sends the largest contingent of ministers in the government.
The induction of Shiv Pratap Shukla and Mahendra Nath Pandey, both Brahmins, are being seen as efforts by the party to keep the community in its fold for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma in UP is also a Brahmin.
Sources in the BJP claim that Mr Modi had chosen the nine new ministers keeping in view the 4Ps — passion, proficiency, professional and political acumen — to deliver his vision of a new India.
They pointed out that Modi is committed to his vision of a new India, which will be built on the foundations of development and good governance, to further the cause of the poor, marginalised and the deprived segments of the society.
Speaking to reporters, finance minister Arun Jaitley said that the allocation of portfolios was done after a close monitoring of the performance of each ministry and its ministers by the Prime Minister.
“The Prime Minister has set the bar very high. It is obviously clear that he is very closely monitoring the performance of each ministry and each individual and therefore decided who is to be given what responsibility,” he said.
Council of ministers
Cabinet ministers
1. Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He is also incharge of ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions; DAE; space; and other unallocated portfolios.
2. Rajnath Singh, home affairs.
3. Sushma Swaraj, external affairs
4. Arun Jaitley, finance, corporate affairs
5. Nitin Jairam Gadkari, road transport and highways, shipping, water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation
6. Suresh Prabhu, commerce and industry
7. D.V. Sadananda Gowda, statistics and programme implementation
8. Uma Bharati, drinking water, sanitation.
9. Ramvilas Paswan, consumer affairs, food and public distribution
10. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi, women and child development
11. Ananth Kumar: chemicals and fertilisers; and parliamentary affairs
12. Ravi Shankar Prasad, law and justice, and electronics and IT
13. Jagat Prakash Nadda, health and family welfare
14. P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju, civil aviation
15. Anant Geete, heavy industries and public enterprises
16. Harsimrat Kaur Badal, food processing industries
17. Narendra Singh Tomar, rural development, panchayati raj and mines
18. Chaudhary Birender Singh, steel.
19. Jual Oram, tribal affairs
20. Radha Mohan Singh, agriculture and farmers’ welfare
21. Thaawar Chand Gehlot, social justice and empowerment
22. Smriti Zubin Irani, textiles and I&B.
23. Harsh Vardhan, science and technology, earth sciences, environment, forest and climate change.
24. Prakash Javadekar, HRD
25. Dharmendra Pradhan, petroleum and natural gas and skill development and entrepreneurship
26. Piyush Goyal, railways and coal
27. Nirmala Sitharaman, defence.
28. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, minority affairs
Ministers of state (Independent charge)
1. Rao Inderjit Singh: planning, and chemicals and fertilisers.
2. Santosh Kumar Gangwar, labour and employment.
3. Shripad Yesso Naik, AYUSH
4. Jitendra Singh, Development of North Eastern Region, PMO, personnel, public grievances and pensions; department of atomic energy; and space.
5. Mahesh Sharma, culture, and MoS environment, forest and climate change.
6. Giriraj Singh, MSME
7. Manoj Sinha, communications; and MoS railways
8. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, youth affairs and sports (ind); and MoS I&B.
9.Raj Kumar Singh, power and new energy
10. Hardeep Singh Puri, housing and urban affairs
11. Alphons Kannanthanam, tourism (ind), and MoS electronics and IT
Ministers of state
1. Vijay Goel, parliamentary affairs, statistics and programme implementation
2. Radhakrishnan P, finance and shipping
3. S.S. Ahluwalia, drinking water and sanitation
4. Ramesh Chandappa, drinking water and sanitation
5. Ramdas Athawale, social justice and empowerment
6. Vishnu Deo Sai, steel
7. Ram Kripal Yadav, rural development
8. Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, home affairs
9. Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary, mines and coal
10. Rajen Gohain, railways
11. V.K. Singh, external affairs.
12. Parshottam Rupala, agriculture and farmers welfare and panchayati raj
13. Krishan Pal, social justice and empowerment
14. Jaswantsinh Bhabhor, tribal affairs
15. Shiv Pratap Shukla, finance
16. Ashwini Kumar Choubey, health and family welfare
17. Sudarshan Bhagat, tribal affairs
18. Upendra Kushwaha, HRD
19. Kiren Rijiju, home affairs
20. Virendra Kumar, women and child development and minority affairs
21. Anantkumar Hegde, skill development and entrepreneurship
22. M.J. Akbar, external affairs
23. Niranjan Jyoti, food processing
24. Y.S. Chowdary, S&T and earth sciences
25. Jayant Sinha, civil aviation.
26. Babul Supriyo, heavy industries
27. Vijay Sampla, social justice and empowerment
28. Arjun Ram Meghwal, parliamentary affairs, water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation
29.Ajay Tamta, ministry of textiles
30. Krishna Raj, agri and farmers welfare
31. Mansukh L Mandaviya, road transport; shipping; chemicals, fertilisers.
32. Anupriya Patel, health and family welfare
33. C.R. Chaudhary, consumer affairs, food and public distribution; commerce
34. P.P. Chaudhary, law and justice and corporate affairs
35. Subhash Ramrao Bhamre, defence
36. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, agriculture and farmers welfare.
37. Satya Pal Singh, HRD, water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation
