Major overhaul of Cabinet; Sonowal, Scindia brought in; 12 ministers exit

In a major overhaul Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought in Sarbananda Sonowal Narayan Rane and Jyotiraditya Scindia in the Cabinet while dropping as many as 12 ministers including Health Minister Harsh Vardhan IT and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and IampB Minister Prakash JavadekarFifteen Cabinet ministers and 28 Ministers of State comprising new faces and those elevated were sworn in at a ceremony held in the Darbar Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhavan While most of the members took oath in Hindi a few of them took it in EnglishThis is the first reshuffle in the Council of Ministers by Prime Minister Modi since he assumed charge for a second term in May 2019An extensive and protracted review was carried out by Modi and the BJP top brass through a series of meetings with ministers ahead of Wednesdays big exercise These meetings were also held in the wake of widespread criticism of the Central governments handling of the Covid19 crisisRane 69 a Rajya Sabha MP and a former Maharashtra chief minister was the first to take oathAfter Rane Sonowal former Assam chief minister took oath in English The 58yearold leader has earlier served as Union Minister of State Independent charge for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and Sports and Youth Affairs under Prime Minister ModiCongressturnedBJP leader Jyotiraditya Scindia a Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh also took oath as a Cabinet minister The 50yearold leader was Union Minister of State Independent Charge for Power and Union Minister of State for Commerce amp Communications in the earlier UPA governmentLok Sabha MP from Tikamgarh in Madhya Pradesh Virendra Kumar Rajya Sabha MP from Odisha Ashwini Vaishnaw Rajya Sabha MP from Bihar and JDU leader R C P Singh Lok Sabha MP from Bihars Hajipur Pashupati Kumar Paras were also swornin as Cabinet ministersKiren Rijiju R K Singh Hardeep Singh Puri Mansukh Mandaviya Parshottam Rupala G Kishan Reddy and Anurag Thakur were elevated to the Cabinet levelBhupendra Yadav who has been serving in the BJP organisation as a general secretary was also swornin as a Cabinet ministerAs many as 28 Ministers of State took oath including seven from Uttar Pradesh which goes to polls next year with the BJP seeking a second term therePankaj Choudhary Anupriya Patel Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma Kaushal Kishore S P S Baghel and Ajay Kumar all Lok Sabha MPs from Uttar Pradesh took oath as new Union Ministers of State B L Verma a Rajya Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh was also swornin as a Minister of StateRajeev Chandrasekhar and Shobha Karandlaje MPs from Karnataka Darshana Vikram Jardosh from Gujarat New Delhi Lok Sabha MP Meenakashi Lekhi Annpurna Devi Jharkhand A Narayanaswamy Karnataka Ajay Bhatt Uttarakhand Chauhan Devusinh Gujarat were also sworn in as MoSOthers who took oath as Ministers of State at the ceremony were Bhagwanth Khuba Karnataka Kapil Moreshwar Patil Maharashtra Pratima Bhoumik Tripura Subhas Sarkar West Bengal Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad Maharashtra Rajkumar Ranjan Singh Manipur MPs Bharati Pawar Maharashtra Bishweswar Tudu Odisha and Shantanu Thakur West Bengal Munjapara Mahendrabhai Gujarat John Barla and Nisith Pramanik West Bengal and BJPs Tamil Nadu state president L MuruganAt least 16 entrants to the Council of Ministers are first time MPsEarlier four senior Union ministers Prasad Javadekar Vardhan and Education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank were among 12 ministers who resigned on Wednesday ahead of the cabinet reshuffleBesides these four Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister D V Sadananda Gowda Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar Minister of State for Education Sanjay Dhotre Minister of State for Women and Child Development Debasree Chaudhuri Minister of State for Jal Shakti Rattan Lal Kataria and Minister of State for Environment Babul Supriyo also resignedSocial Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawarchand Gehlot had resigned after he was made Governor of Karnataka on TuesdayPrasad and Javadekar who had been the face of Cabinet briefings announcing key Cabinet decisions on several occasions in the past few years were present at the swearingin ceremony here after resigning as ministers Vardhan was also present at the ceremonyWith this reset Modi has brought in young faces and has also given representation to various social groups and regions in the reshuffleThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever