NEW DELHI: Portfolios of the recently selected ministers were allocated on Monday following the first cabinet meeting of the Modi 3.0 government.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was sworn in for a historic third term on Sunday. Seventy-one ministers joined him in the Modi-led council of ministers. Important ministries such as Defence, Finance, Home, External Affairs, and Railways were retained by the incumbent ministers.
However, the third term of Modi government saw the inclusion of several new faces such JP Nadda, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Manohar Lal Khattar, Chirag Paswan etc, with many being from states which will be going to polls in coming months.
21 out of the 72 ministers sworn in on June 9, comes from the six states and UTs which will be witnessing Assembly polls by 2025. This accounts for 29.17% of the total number of ministers.
The states and Union Territories set to go to the polls in 2024 and 2025 include Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, J&K, Delhi, and Bihar.
Maharashtra, a larger state with 48 MPs in the Lok Sabha, has six ministers. Four are from the BJP, one from the Shiv Sena led by chief minister Eknath Shinde, and one from the Republican Party of India. Interestingly, the Nationalist Congress Party’s Ajit Pawar faction, which won just one seat, did not get a representation in Modi 3.0.
There are three ministers from Haryana in the Union council, including former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who holds a Cabinet rank. Gurugram MP Rao Inderjit was also sworn in as a Minister of State (Independent Charge).
Haryana and Maharashtra will go to polls in October this year. Both states have seen a drop in the NDA‘s tally.
Jammu and Kashmir, which will have its state assembly election soon for the first time since 2014, is represented by BJP’s Jitendra Singh in Modi 3.0. In Delhi, East Delhi MP Harsh Malhotra was the only one to be sworn in as Minister of State from the national capital.
Additionally, two BJP MPs Annapurna Devi and Sanjay Seth from Jharkhand were sworn in as ministers on Sunday.
Bihar, which sent 30 NDA MPs to the Lok Sabha, secured eight ministerial positions, the second-highest number after Uttar Pradesh, including Bharat Ratna Karpoori Thakur’s son, Ram Nath Thakur, BJP’s Giriraj Singh, Nityanand Rai, LJP (RVP)’s Chirag Paswan, the JD(U)’s Lalan Singh, and Hindustani Awami Morcha leader Jeetan Ram Manjhi.
The BJP, the largest constituent of the NDA, saw a decline in its tally in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, particularly in Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, and Bihar.