Team Blitz India
PRIME Minister Narendra Modi took the oath of office for a third consecutive term, along with 71 members of his coalition Government, at a grand ceremony held at the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on June 9.
While 30 of those sworn in are Cabinet Ministers and five Ministers of State with Independent Charge, 36 are Ministers of State. The portfolios were not yet announced at the time of going to the print. PM Modi is only the second Prime Minister to have been elected for a third term in a row after the country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1962. President Droupadi Murmu administered the oath to PM Modi. Senior ministers Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah and Nitin Gadkari were administered the oath after him.
Massive attendance
BJP President JP Nadda, who made a surprise entry in the Modi 3.0 Cabinet, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Nirmala Sitharaman, S Jaishankar, and Manohar Lal Khattar followed in taking oath as Cabinet ministers. At least 8,000 guests were present at the oath-taking ceremony, including leaders from neighbouring countries and the Indian Ocean Region, like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Bhutan, Nepal, Mauritius, and Seychelles.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge also attended the ceremony, while leaders from various opposition parties, including the Trinamool Congress and the Left stayed away. Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar, Vikrant Masey, and Anupam Kher were also present in over two-hour ceremony.
NDA allies in Govt
Five allies of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), including former CMs of Karnataka and Bihar – HD Kumaraswamy of the Janata Dal (Secular) and Hindustan Awam Morcha (HAM) leader Jitan Ram Manjhi, – LJP leader Chirag Paswan, Ram Mohan Naidu of the TDP, and Rajeev Ranjan Singh ‘Lallan’ of the Janata Dal-United were given Cabinet berths.
Jayant Chaudhary of the Rashtriya Lok Dal and Pratap Rao Jadhav of the Shiv Sena were accorded the status of Ministers of State with Independent Charge. Anupriya Patel of the Apna Dal, Ram Nath Thakur of the JD-U, Chandrashekhar Pemmasani of the TDP and Ram Das Athawale of the Republican Party of India, were made Ministers of State.
States representation
The Council of Ministers is drawn from 24 States and it includes Suresh Gopi, BJP’s first-ever MP from the southern state of Kerala. The choices, according to reports appearing in the media, reflect diverse caste and community representation, with 27 ministers belonging to the OBC, 10 SC, five ST, and five from minority communities.
At least 10 ministers, who have been part of the Government during PM Modi’s first two terms, have made it to Modi 3.0 as well. They include Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal, Giriraj Singh, and Kiren Rijiju. While 43 members of the new Council of Ministers are third-term MPs, 39 have been ministers before.
Among the former chief ministers who have been included in the new ministry are Shivraj Singh Chouhan of Madhya Pradesh, Haryana’s Manohar Lal Khattar, and Assam’s Sarbananda Sonowal, apart from Manjhi and Kumaraswamy
