New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi ended all speculation on Tuesday as he announced the portfolios for his ministers a day after he was sworn in along with his Cabinet. The number 2 in Modi's Cabinet is the man who lost the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat Arun Jaitley. Jaitley is the Defence Minister, Finance Minister as well as the Corporate Affairs Minister.
However, he says the Defence portfolio is temporary till the next Cabinet expansion happens. "We have to strike a balancing act between inflation, growth. The challenge is to restore confidence in investors. Defence is a transition till the next Cabinet expansion," Jaitley said soon after taking charge of his ministries.
The other two top ministers in Modi's Cabinet are Rajnath Singh and Sushma Swaraj. While party president Rajnath Singh moves on to now becoming the Home Minister, Sushma Swaraj has become the first woman to be the External Affairs Minister of India.
Women power, meritocracy and fearlessness are some things that are evident in Modi's Cabinet. Modi has not paid much heed to allies giving them small ministries. In fact, sources say that BJP ally LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan is unhappy with Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.
Other allies like TDP's Ashok Gajapathi Raju and Akali Dal's Harsimrat Kaur Badal have got Civil Aviation and Food Processing Industries respectively. Shiv Sena's Anant Geete has got Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises. There were reports on Monday that the Shiv Sena is unhappy with only one ministry given to it while it wanted three ministries.
Modi has gone for people in whom he has total faith. He has also tried to position himself as a person who believes in women's empowerment. Smriti Irani, who gave a tough fight to Rahul Gandhi in Amethi but lost to him, has been given the Human Resource Development Ministry.
Another big gainer in Modi's Cabinet among the women is Nirmala Seetharaman who has got Commerce and Industry (Independent Charge) and is also the Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs, which means she will work closely with Jaitley, the number 2 in Modi's Cabinet.
Modi has come up with a new ministry called the Ganga Rejuvenation, which has been given to Uma Bharti. Uma Bharti, who had made a Twitter faux pas of revealing her ministry and then apologising, has in fact been given the ministries she had tweeted about - Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.
Modi has given key Railways portfolio to former Karnataka chief minister and Lok Sabha member from Bangalore North DV Sadananda Gowda. LK Advani's close confidante Ananthkumar has been given less important Chemicals and Fertilisers.
The allies SAD, Shiv Sena, TDP and LJP have got insignificant portfolios. Since the BJP has absolute majority on its own, Modi can afford to ignore the allies' demands for plum portfolios.
While Modi's Cabinet for now is a compact one, sources say there's more to come. Modi has kept Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Department of Atomic Energy and Department of Space with himself. Sources say a cabinet expansion is likely in the next three months. An announcement is expected appointing Mukul Rohatgi as the Attorney General.
Here's the full list of the minister with their portfolios in the Narendra Modi Cabinet:
Narendra Modi
- Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions
- Department of Atomic Energy
- Department of Space.
Rajnath Singh
- Home Affairs
Sushma Swaraj
- External Affairs
- Overseas Indian Affairs
Arun Jaitley
- Defence
- Finance
- Corporate Affairs
M Venkaiah Naidu
- Urban Development
- Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation
- Parliamentary Affairs
DV Sadananda Gowda
- Railways
Nitin Gadkari
- Road Transport and Highways
- Shipping
Ram Vilas Paswan
- Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
Ashok Gajapathi Raju
- Civil Aviation
Anant Geete
- Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises
Thaawar Chand Gehlot
- Social Justice and Empowerment
Harsh Vardhan
- Health and Family Welfare
Najma A. Heptulla
- Minority Affairs
Uma Bharati
- Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation
Ravi Shankar Prasad
- Communications and Information Technology
Law and Justice
Kalraj Mishra
- Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
Maneka Sanjay Gandhi
- Women and Child Development
Ananth Kumar
- Chemicals and Fertilizers
Gopinathrao Munde
- Rural Development
- Panchayati Raj
- Drinking Water and Sanitation
Harsimrat Kaur Badal
- Food Processing Industries
Jual Oram
- Tribal Affairs
Radha Mohan Singh
- Agriculture
Narendra Singh Tomar
- Mines, Steel, Labour and Employment
Smriti Zubin Irani
- Human Resource Development
Ministers of State
Dharmendra Pradhan
- Petroleum and Natural Gas (Independent Charge)
General VK Singh
- Development of North Eastern Region (Independent Charge)
- External Affairs
- Overseas Indian Affairs
Inderjit Singh Rao
- Planning (Independent Charge)
- Statistics and Programme Implementation (Independent Charge)
- Defence
Santosh Kumar Gangwar
- Textiles (Independent Charge)
- Parliamentary Affairs
- Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation
Shripad Yesso Naik
- Culture (Independent Charge)
- Tourism (Independent Charge)
Dharmendra Pradhan
- Petroleum and Natural Gas (Independent Charge)
Sarbananda Sonowal
- Skill Development, Entrepreneurship, Youth Affairs and - Sports (Independent Charge)
Prakash Javadekar
- Information and Broadcasting (Independent Charge)
- Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Independent Charge)
- Parliamentary Affairs
Piyush Goyal
- Power (Independent Charge)
- Coal (Independent Charge)
- New and Renewable Energy (Independent Charge)
Jitendra Singh
- Science and Technology (Independent Charge)
- Earth Sciences (Independent Charge)
- Prime Minister's Office
- Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions
- Department of Atomic Energy
- Department of Space
Nirmala Sitharaman
- Commerce and Industry (Independent Charge)
- Finance
- Corporate Affairs
GM Siddeshwara
- Civil Aviation
Manoj Sinha
- Railways
Nihalchand
- Chemicals and Fertilizers
Upendra Kushwaha
- Rural Development
- Panchayati Raj
- Drinking Water and Sanitation
Radhakrishnan P
- Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises
Kiren Rijiju
- Home Affairs
Krishan Pal
- Road Transport and Highways
- Shipping
Sanjeev Kumar Balyan
- Agriculture
- Food Processing Industries
Mansukhbhai Dhanjibhai Vasava
- Tribal Affairs
Raosaheb Dadarao Danve
- Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
Vishnu Deo Sai
- Mines
- Steel
- Labour and Employment
Sudarshan Bhagat
- Social Justice and Empowerment
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