New Delhi – The Union Cabinet of Ministers has been expanded, and the new Ministers were sworn in on Wednesday. There are 15 Ministers of cabinet rank and 28 ministers of State among them. The cabinet expansion was making rounds in the political circles for some time now. The representation of women and the far eastern states has become the point of discussion in the media.
On Wednesday evening, President Ram Nath Kovind administered the oath to the new Ministers during the function held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Narayan Rane, Sarbananda Sonowal, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Virendra Kumar, Ramchandra Pratap Singh, Kiren Rijiju, Ashwin Vaishnav, Pashupatinath Paras, RK Singh, Hardeep Singh Puri, Mansukh Mandaviya, Bhupendra Yadav, P Rupala, G Kishan Reddy and Anurag Thakur were sworn in as Cabinet ministers.
Meenakshi Lekhi, Pankaj Chaudhari, Anupriya Patel, AP Baghel, R Chandrashekhar, Shobha Karandlaje, Bahanupratap Singh Verma, Darshana Jardosh, Annapoorna Devi, A Narayan Swami, Kaushal Kishore, Ajay Bhat, BL Verma, Devu Singh Chouhan, Bhagwanth Khutba, Kapil Patil, Pratima Bhowmik. Subhash Sarkar, Ajay Kumar, DR Bhagwat Karad, Rajkumar Singh, Bharati Pawar, Bishweswar Tudu, Shantanu Thakur, M Mahendrabhai, John Barla, L Murugan and Nishit Pramanik were sworn in as Minister of State.
The official information regarding portfolio allotment to the new ministers was not available till night. But it has been revealed that Mansukh Mandaviya has been assigned the portfolio of Health, Chemicals and fertilisers as a Minister of Cabinet rank. Whereas Jyotiraditya Scindia has been assigned Civil Aviation Ministry, Ashwini Vaishnav has been assigned to the Railway, technology and communications ministry. Narayan Rane has been assigned a small industry and Anurag Thakur has been assigned information and telecommunications ministry.
Former Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has been assigned the responsibility of ports, shipping and Ayush ministry. Along with this, the responsibility of the Swachh Bharat Campaign also has been assigned to Smriti Irani. Whereas Piyush Goyal has been assigned textiles and Smriti Iran has been assigned women and child welfare ministry.
Hardeep Singh Puri has been given the petroleum ministry and Dharmendra Pradhan has been assigned education and skill development ministry. Food Processing ministry is with Pashupati Paras and P Rupala has been given the responsibility of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying ministry. Reports have been published in the media that Bhupendra Yadav will take over as the new labour minister. Whereas, it is claimed that Meenakshi Lekhi has become the Ministry of State for External Affairs and Culture.
