Narendra Modi made history by taking oath as Prime Minister of India for a consecutive third term, a feat unmatched since Jawaharlal Nehru’s record. Though the BJP could not muster the majority on it’s own, the support of NDA allies Nitish Kumar of the JDU and N Chandrababu Naidu of the TDP, with their 12 and 16 seats, respectively, is enough to sail it through.
The new team, led by the Prime Minister, includes 30 Cabinet Ministers, 5 Ministers of State with independent charge, and 36 Ministers of State. There are 11 ministers from NDA allies.
The notable inclusions in the cabinet are Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Nirmala Sitharaman, HD Kumaraswamy, Dharmendra Pradhan, Jitan Ram Manjhi, Chirag Paswan, Jayant Chaudhary, Jitin Prasada, Ramdas Athawale, Suresh Gopi, and Ravneet Singh Bittu.
The architect of the spectacular Madhya Pradesh victory, despite being sidelined during the campaign, the former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh has increased his political stature manifold after his 29/29 win. It should be noted that, in the runup for the 2014 elections, Shivraj was in the race to be the prime ministerial face of the campaign, with the blessing of LK Advani.
There are six former Chief Ministers as part of the new cabinet. Besides Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Jitan Ram Manjhi ( Bihar) and HD Kumaraswamy (Karnataka), from the NDA allies have been included in the cabinet. Manjhi hails from Mushar, a MahaDalit community in Bihar. HD Kumaraswami, son of former PM HD Deve Gowda, is included, disregarding public opinion about Prajwal Revanna, accused of rapes and filming of hundreds of women, a controversy that shook the nation. Kumaraswamy is the uncle of Prajwal Revanna.
Nirmala Sitharaman found a place in the council of ministers despite declining to contest the Lok Sabha elections, citing “I don’t have that kind of money to contest the election.”. Her husband, Parakala Prabhakar, is emerging as one of the staunchest critics of the Modi regime, generously tagging Modi as a dictator in several of his interviews.
Dharmendra Pradhan’s inclusion in the cabinet is noteworthy because it eliminates the possibility of him becoming CM of Odisha, where the BJP is coming to power for the first time after conclusively defeating Navin Patnaik’s BJD rule of over 24 years.
As expected, Chirag Paswan and Jayant Chaudhary joined the cabinet. Chirag Paswan has projected himself as a loyal foot soldier of Narendra Modi. Jayant Chaudhary, who has received Jat loyalty as a legacy from his grandfather, former PM Charn Singh, and his father, Ajit Singh, was also expected to be made a minister.
Congress turncoat and son of big Congress leader of his time Jitendra Prasad, Jitin Prasada, also got a berth in the new cabinet. The indispensability of Ramdas Athawale remains a mystery for all political observers. Suhel Sheth made a hilarious observation on X.
Suresh Gopi, who opened the gates for the BJP in impenetrable Kerala for the first time with his win in Thrissur, was also rewarded with a ministerial berth. The son of former CM of Punjab Ravneet Singh Bittu was included in the cabinet despite losing the Lok Sabha elections from Ludhiana on BJP ticket, which he was representing as a Congress candidate earlier
There are seven women in the new cabinet. The new women ministers are Nirmala Sitharaman, Shobha Karandlaje, Nimuben Bambhaniya, Raksha Khadse, Savitri Thakur, Annpurna Devi, and Apna Dal MP Anupriya Patel.
