PM Narendra Modi takes oath for second term, inducts 19 new faces in his cabinet

Narendra Modi took over as the country’s Prime Minister for a second term on Thursday after he was sworn in along with Union ministers, including BJP president Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari and former foreign secretary S Jaishankar, a surprise pick. Modi, 68, was administered the oath of office and secrecy by President Ram Nath Kovind at a glittering ceremony at the forecourt of majestic Rashtraparti Bhavan. “Honoured to serve India!” tweeted Modi after taking the oath for the second consecutive term.

Apart from Shah, Singh, Gadkari, the other top leaders who were sworn-in as cabinet ministers included D V Sadananda Gowda, Nirmala Sitharaman and Ram Vilas Paswan.

Some of the key ministers in the previous Modi government, including Sushma Swaraj, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Maneka Gandhi were not part of the new council of ministers.

Top opposition leaders including former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Rahul Gandhi and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, corporate honchos, film stars, chief ministers and a galaxy of leaders from BIMSTEC countries were part of the nearly 8,000 guests at the ceremony.

Others who took oath of office as cabinet ministers are—Narendra Singh Tomar, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Thanwar Chand Gehlot, Ramesh Pokhriyal, Arjun Munda, Smriti Irani, Harsh Vardhan, Prakash Javadekar, Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Prahlad Joshi, Mahendra nath pandey, Arvind Sawant, Giriraj Singh and Gajendra Shekhawat.

The Modi 2.0 cabinet will also see 19 new faces. Here are the names of these newly inducted ministers:

1. Amit Shah

2. S Jaishankar

3. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank

4. Arjun Munda

5. Pralhad Joshi

6. Arvind Sawant

7. G Kishan Reddy

8. Dhotre Sanjay Shamrao

9. Anurag Singh Thakur

10. Angadi Suresh Channabasappa

11. Nityanand Rai

12. Rattan Lal Kataria

13. V Muraleedharan

14. Renuka Singh Saruta

15. Som Parkash

16. Rameswar Teli

17. Pratap Chandra Sarangi

18. Kailash Choudhary

19. Debasree Chaudhuri

Those who took oath as minister of state with independent charge are— Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Rao Inderjit Singh, Shripad Yesso Naik, Jitendra Singh Kiren Rijiju, Prahalad Singh Patel, Raj Kumar Singh, Hardeep Singh Puri Mansukh L Mandaviya.

The minister of state are—Faggan Singh Kulaste, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Arjun Ram Meghwal, V K Singh, Krishan Pal, Danve Raosaheb Dadarao, G Kishan Reddy, Parshottam Rupala, Ramdas Athawale, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Babul Supriyo, Sanjeev Kumar Balyan.

There are 24 cabinet ministers and as many MoS’ while nine other were given MoS with independent charge rank. Modi can have as many as 80 ministers in the 543-member Lok Sabha.

As per the Constitution, the total number of Union ministers, including the Prime Minister shall not exceed 15 per cent of the number of members in the LS.