Modi 3.0 Government: 72-Member Cabinet Sworn-in

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, June 9: A 72-member new cabinet headed by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi was installed in the office on Sunday including 30 ministers of the cabinet rank, excluding the prime minister and 41 ministers of state, five of them heading ministries holding independent charge.

The president Droupadi Murmu administered the oath of office and secrecy at a ceremony in the Rashtrapati Bhavan in the presence of several foreign dignitaries and heads of state whose presence heralded further strengthening of their ties with India.

Mr Modi, 73, will head a coalition government in his third term for the first time since he became Prime Minister in 2014 following a huge “Brand Modi” victory after 10 years of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) rule. He is the second Prime Minister after Jawaharlal Nehru to be elected for a third term in a row. PM Modi won the Lok Sabha election from Varanasi by 1.5 lakh votes, a margin much narrower than the 4.6 lakh lead he had over his nearest rival in the 2019 election.

The oath ceremony was held under the open sky at the lawns of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, with the weather office forecasting a maximum temperature of 42 degree Celsius in the national capital.

In taking oath, Mr Modi was followed by Mr Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah. Nitin Gadkari was the fourth leader to be administered the oath of office and was followed by JP Nadda, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Nirmala Sitharaman, S Jaishankar, and Manohar Lal Khattar.

HD Kumaraswamy of the Janata Dal (Secular), who took oath after Mr Khattar, was the first leader from any of the BJP’s allies in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to take oath. Soon after, Janata Dal (United) leader Lalan Singh, a close aide of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, also took oath.

Sarbananda Sonowal was the first leader from the northeast to take oath today.

Virendra Kumar, a prominent Scheduled Castes face of the BJP and eight-time MP was inducted into the Narendra Modi government. He won the election from Madhya Pradesh’s Tikamgarh reserved seat.

Supporters of leaders who have been called to the stage clapped and cheered loudly, as they saw their leaders walk towards the mic to be administered oath by the President.

The decisions on the new cabinet formation were taken after a meeting at the Prime Minister’s residence on Saturday. Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman, and S Jaishankar, who held home, defence, finance and external affairs ministries respectively in the outgoing government, besides its other senior members such as Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan, Ashwini Vaishnaw and Hardeep Singh Puri are part of the new government.

Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu, Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth and his Bhutanese counterpart Tshering Tobgay were among those who attended the Modi 3.0 ministry’s swearing-in ceremony. The other world leaders attending the ceremony are Bangladesh President Sheikh Hasina, Vice-President of Seychelles Ahmed Afif, Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ and Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesingh.

Following is the full list of the ministers who took oath on Sunday. The portfolios will be allocated to the ministers later.