Narendra Modi was sworn in as the Prime Minister of India for the second consecutive term at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on May 30. The oath was administered by President of India Ram Nath Kovind.
Further, PM Modi’s Council of Ministers took oath at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Among those who are retaining Cabinet portfolios include BJP leaders Rajnath Singh, Smriti Irani, Nirmala Sitharaman, DV Sadananda Gowda, Piyush Goyal, Prakash Javadekar and Nitin Gadkari.
In addition, Shiromani Akali Dal leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal will be retaining a Cabinet position.
On the one hand, BJP ally Shiv Sena will get one Cabinet berth with Mumbai South MP Arvind Sawant taking oath; on the other hand, another ally of the saffron party, JD(U) was given no berths in the Cabinet.
Debutantes in the Cabinet this time include incumbent BJP President Amit Shah. In addition, former Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar is a fresh name. Jaishankar had joined the Indian Foreign Services in 1977 and served as the Foreign Secretary from January 2015 to January 2018.
Modi 2.0 Cabinet will see five ministers from Madhya Pradesh, four ministers from Telangana, three from Rajasthan, two each from Bengal and Odisha and one from Chattisgarh.
Meanwhile, many biggies have been dropped from the erstwhile candidate. These include Suresh Prabhu, JP Nadda, Anant Kumar Hegde, Maneka Gandhi, KJ Alphons, Rajyawardhan Singh Rathore and Jayant Sinha.
Besides, Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj had earlier requested Modi not to give them responsibilities citing health reasons.
At the ceremony, also present were prominent foreign dignitaries including, Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth, Nepalese Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and other premiers of other BIMSTEC Nations. Pakistan was not invited for the ceremony as SAARC nations were left out.
