Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s council of ministers was expanded on Sunday, with nine new faces — including four former bureaucrats — being inducted, suggesting an admission of talent crunch in the BJP ranks.
The four are former Union home secretary R K Singh, former Mumbai Commissioner of Police Satyapal Singh, former diplomat Hardeep Singh Puri, and retired IAS officer KJ Alphons Kannanthanam. The five other new faces include MPs Ashwini Choubey from Bihar and Anant Kumar Hegde from Karnataka. The others to be inducted are Shiv Pratap Shukla, a Rajya Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh; Virendra Kumar, a Scheduled Caste member of Lok Sabha from Madhya Pradesh; and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, a Lok Sabha member from Rajasthan.
The swearing-in ceremony saw the elevation of four MoS to cabinet rank and the induction of nine new MoS rank ministers.
The oath taking ceremony is currently underway as the President has arrived. Railway minister Suresh Prabhu and minister for external affairs Sushma Swaraj have occupied the front row seats along with home minister Rajnath Singh and finance minister Arun Jaitley.
Meanwhile, Uma Bharti, who resigned as water resources and Ganga rejuvenation minister last week, is skipping the ceremony.ANI reported that the Sena would be skipping the oath taking ceremony. Dharmendra Pradhan first to take oath, has been promoted to cabinet rank while Piyush Goyal was second to take oath. Nirmala Sitharamn, as well as Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, have taken oath as cabinet ministers.
Veerendra Kumar has also taken oath as Minister of State. Kumar is a six-term MP from Tikamgarh and an important Dalit face of the BJP. Bihar’s Ashwini Kumar Choubey also took oath as MoS. Choubey is currently a Lok Sabha MP from Buxar.
