Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who today inducted 19 new faces in his Cabinet, dropped five members including Minister of State for HRD Ram Shankar Katheria.
Minister of State for Water Resources River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Sanwar Lal Jat, Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Mohanbhai Kalyanjibhai Kundariya, Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Nihal Chand and Minister of State for Panchayati Raj Mansukhbhai Dhanjibhai Vasava are the members dropped from the Cabinet.
President Pranab Mukherjee has accepted the resignations of the five Ministers of State from the Council of Ministers.
Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Environment and Forest Prakash Javadekar, who held independent charge, has now been given the Cabinet rank.
The new Ministers of State are Faggan Singh Kulste, S. S. Ahluwalia, Ramesh Jigjinagi, Vijay Goel, Ramdas Athawale, Rajen Gohain, Anil Madhav Dave, Parshottam Rupala, M. J. Akbar, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Jaswant Sinh Bhabhor, Mahendra Nath Pandey, Ajay Tamta, Krishna Raj, Mansukh Mandaviya, Anupriya Patel, C. R. Chaudhary, P. P. Chaudhary and Subhash Bhamre.
This is the second expansion of the Prime Minister Modi's government.
With today's induction, the total number of Ministers in the Union Council has gone up to 83.