In a major overhaul, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday brought in Sarbananda Sonowal, Narayan Rane and Jyotiraditya Scindia in the Cabinet while dropping as many as 12 ministers including Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, IT and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar.
Fifteen Cabinet ministers and 28 Ministers of State, comprising new faces and those elevated, were sworn in at a ceremony held in the Darbar Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
This is the first reshuffle in the Council of Ministers by Prime Minister Modi since he assumed charge for a second term in May 2019.
Here are the big gainers from the list of 43 who were sworn in.
Jyotiraditya Scindia
Credited with re-acquiring a lost state for the Bharatiya Janata Party through his rebellion, Scindia reaped the rewards of switching over to the saffron party in the Cabinet reshuffle. The former Congress leader who joined the BJP in 2020, was handed over a Cabinet rank and the Civil Aviation, a portfolio held by his late father Madhavrao Scindia who died in a plane crash in 2001.
Scindia, who joined politics in 2002 after the demise of his father, bid adieu to his long-time party in March 2020. His exit came as a surprise mainly because he was seen as a Rahul Gandhi loyalist, and had worked extensively for Congress' win in Madhya Pradesh at a time when the party was struggling to regain its hold in the Hindi heartland. Scindia alleged that the Congress high command was sidelining him to promote Kamal Nath, who was also the chief minister of the state at the time. Scindia walked out of the state government with 22 other MLAs who supported him, leading to the downfall of the Congress government and joined the BJP.
However, apart from political reasons to accommodate him, Scindia's induction also makes sense otherwise. He is a four-time Lok Sabha MP from his family's strong-hold Guna constituency, is a household name in Madhya Pradesh due to his royal lineage, and exerts strong control in the Guna-Gwalior region. He also comes with extensive administrative experience. He is a former Union minister in the UPA government. He was the Minister of State with an independent charge for Power in the cabinet of prime minister Manmohan Singh from October 2012 until May 2014. He has also served as the Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology and as Minister of State for Commerce and Industry in the UPA governments.
Sarbananda Sonowal
Sonowal, a former Assam chief minister who was replaced by Himanta Biswa Sharma after the recent Assembly polls, was given the Shipping and Ports portfolio.
The former Assam chief minister's return to New Delhi power corridors was a political masterstroke on two counts: On one hand, it rewarded Sonowal for his proverbial 'sacrifice' in stepping aside to let his contemporary Himanta Biswa Sarma take charge of the state. On the other hand, it took care of any simmering dissatisfaction in the state unit that may have arisen because of two senior leaders' influence over the state politics. Sonowal's tribal identity, his strong roots in the state of Assam, and his familiarity with the state of affairs in other northeastern states will send a positive message for the BJP.
Sonowal's presence in the Cabinet is also due to his experience. Apart from the administrative experience of handling affairs of a sensitive state like Assam, Sonowal has also served as the Union minister for sports and youth affairs in the previous Modi government. He started his political career first as a member of the All Assam Students Union and later joined the Asom Gana Parishad. But he has been a steady fixture in the BJP's Assam unit for over a decade now and is credited with strengthening the BJP's presence in the state
Anurag Thakur
Son of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) veteran from Himachal Pradesh Prem Kumar Dhumal, Thakur was the minister of state in the ministries of finance and corporate affairs under Nirmala Sitharaman before Wednesday's Cabinet reshuffle. He has often hit out at the critics of the government inside and outside Parliament. He now heads the Information and Broadcasting as well as the Youth Affairs and Sports ministries.
Thakur was the obvious pick to replace Kiren Rijiju, who has been elevated in rank and has been handed the key law ministry portfolio, as he was the president of the BCCI between May 2016 and February 2017. Before that, he was the secretary of the Board and also headed the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA).
Kiren Rijiju
Rijiju, a prominent face from the Northeast in the government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been elevated to the rank of Cabinet minister and has been given the charge of the key Ministry of Law and Justice. He was the minister of state (independent charge) in the Ministry of Youth and Sports before the rejig. He was also an MoS in the minority affairs ministry.
Rijiju was appointed as the minister of state for sports in May 2019, replacing Olympic silver-medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore. Along with the Independent charge of the Sports and Youth Affairs, Rijiju also served as the minister of state for minority affairs before being given temporary charge of the Ministry of Ayush.
More than 120 athletes have qualified for the Olympic Games which will open on 23 July amid strict health safety protocols due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During Rijiju's tenure, the sports ministry had decided against sending its delegation for the mega-event, unlike past editions, saying that it would ensure the wider presence of the athletes' support staff.
Highlights of Rijiju's stint included an increase in prize money for national sports awards winners, prompt assistance for current and former athletes facing financial hardships and upgrade of infrastructure at various Sports Authority of India facilities across the country.
Ashwini Vaishnaw
A Rajya Sabha MP from Odisha and a former IAS officer of the 1994 batch, Vaishnaw bagged three key portfolios in the Cabinet reshuffle. He now holds the railways, communications, and electronics & IT portfolio.
BJP leader Vaishnaw, 50, born in Rajasthan's Jodhpur, is a former bureaucrat of the Odisha cadre and he also has an MBA from Wharton School, Pennysylvania University and MTech from IIT Kanpur.
He was inducted into the saffron party barely six days ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections on 28 June, 2019.
During his stint as an IAS officer, Vaishnaw worked as the District Magistrate-cum Collector of Balasore and Cuttack districts. His bureaucratic acumen, in fact, came to the fore when the super cyclone hit Odisha in 1999 killing at least 10,000 people.
Vaishnaw worked in Odisha till 2003, before being appointed as deputy secretary in the office of former prime minister (late) Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He was later appointed as Vajpayee's private secretary after the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) lost the election in 2004.
Mansukh Mandaviya
Gujarat MP Mansukh Mandaviya, one of the biggest gainers in the Cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will now be in charge of health and family welfare as well as chemicals and fertilisers ministries.
Earlier on Wednesday, he was elevated to Cabinet rank from minister of state (MoS). He was holding the independent charge of shipping ministry and was MoS for the chemicals and fertilisers ministry.
His elevation assumes significance amid the continuing fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
He succeeds Harsh Vardhan, who has been dropped from the Council of Ministers despite being one of the strongest defenders of government policies during the coronavirus crisis.
Mandaviya, a BJP leader from Gujarat's Saurashtra region, has been an important young face in the Narendra Modi government at the Centre since 2016.
He was first inducted in the Union cabinet as Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, Shipping and Chemicals and Fertilisers on 5 July, 2016. On 30 May, 2019, he was again sworn in as MoS for Chemicals and Fertilisers with an independent charge of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways.
Hardeep Singh Puri
A surprise pick during a cabinet expansion in 2017, Puri, a former diplomat, was given two important portfolios -- housing and urban affairs and aviation -- in the BJP-led government's second term.
As the housing and urban affairs minister, he has been piloting the Central Vista project, the pet project of the Modi government which is slated to revamp a considerable portion of the Lutyen's Zone in Delhi.
When the government was facing an intense attack over the Central Vista project, Puri took on the opposition strongly while defending the initiative.
He has now been made the petroleum minister and has retained his urban development portfolio. He was divested of civil aviation, which has been handed over to Jyotiraditya Scindia.
Pashupati Paras
Pashupati Kumar Paras, MP from Hajipur, was on inducted as a Cabinet minister and given the charge of the key Ministry of Food Processing Industries. The portfolio was earlier with Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar.
The ministry has assumed more significance in recent years as the government is focusing on raising the processing level of fruits and vegetables to reduce wastage. The central government is also developing several mega food parks across the country with an aim to create jobs and expand the market for processed food.
Paras, a politician with more than four decades of experience, has spent the larger part of his career under the shadow of his late brother and former Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan.
However, having staged a successful revolt against Paswan's son Chirag Paswan, the Lok Sabha MP from Bihar now seems poised to come into his own.
Paras, who previously headed Lok Janshakti Party's Bihar unit and is currently the national president of its breakaway faction, began his innings in 1978 as a Janata Party MLA from Alauli in his native Khagaria district, a seat formerly represented by the late Ram Vilas Paswan.
Bhupendra Yadav
Considered a close aide of Home Minister Amit Shah, Bhupendra Yadav's induction seems to be a reward of his steady performance at the organisational level. The Rajya Sabha MP from Rajanstah is credited for strategising many wins for the BJP, including the Assembly elections of Rajasthan (2013), Gujarat (2017) and Uttar Pradesh (2017). He was also the architect of the JD(U)-BJP alliance in Bihar which toppled the Mahagathbandhan government and also secured a win in the last year's election.
The 51-year-old second-term Rajya Sabha MP, enjoys the image of a sober and non-controversial politician who deftly handles the issues on hand without drawing any negative attention.
He has been given the charge of Labour ministry.
July 08, 2021 at 10:29AM
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