NEW DELHI, June 10: The Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet in his third term will retain the known faces in the big four ministries. Amit Shah will retain the Home portfolio, Rajnath Singh Defence, Foreign ministry will be retained by S Jaishankar and the Finance ministry by Nirmala Sitharaman. The Prime Minister will handle the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, the Department of Atomic Energy and the Department of Space.
The Road Transport and Highways will be retained by Nitin Gadkari, with two juniors under him — Ajay Tamta and Harsh Malhotra. Piyush Goyal has retained the Commerce portfolio.
The former Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar will handle two key ministries — Power and Housing and Urban Affairs. For the first, he would have the assistance of junior minister Shripad Naik, for the second, Tokhan Sahu, the first-time minister from Chhattisgarh.
The current BJP national president JP Nadda, who was the health minister in PM Modi’s first cabinet, has been given the same portfolio. He has also been given charge of the Chemicals and Fertilisers department. The former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, will handle the key ministry of Agriculture.
Kiren Rijiju has been put in charge of Parliamentary Affairs, previously handled by Pralhad Joshi. Mr Joshi has been moved to the Food, Consumer Affairs and Renewable Energy department.
CR Paatil will be in charge of Jal Shakti ministry and Bhupendra Yadav, Environment. Giriraj Singh has been shifted to Textiles — a department handled by Smriti Irani. Annapurna Devi will be in charge of the other portfolio handled by Ms Irani — Women & Child Development. Mansukh Mandavia, who was handling health in the last cabinet, has been put in charge of Labour and Employment and Sports and Youth Affairs.
Former Bihar Chief Minister and HAM chief Jitan Ram Manjhi will have charge of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises with Shobha Karandlaje as the Minister of State. The plum portfolios of I&B and railways will be handled by Ashwini Vaishnaw. The Civil Aviation Ministry has changed hands from Jyotiraditya Scindia to TDP’s Ram Mohan Naidu, the youngest minister in the cabinet. Mr Scindia has been put in charge of the Telecom ministry.
South ally and Janata Dal Secular chief HD Kumaraswamy has been put in charge of the Heavy Industries and Steel portfolios. Key Bihar ally and LJP chief Chirag Paswan has been given charge of the Food Processing department.
Among the Ministers of State with Independent Charge, Dr Jitendra Singh is expected to be the busiest. A third-time Union minister from Jammu and Kashmir, he has been put in charge of multiple portfolios — Science and Technology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Space and the Prime Minister’s Office. Arjun Ram Meghwal will have Independent charge of for Law and Justice and will also be the junior minister for Parliamentary Affairs.
(Manas Dasgupta)
