 "Cabinet expansion, Narendra Modi, Pranab Mukherjee, S S Ahluwalia")
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday reshuffled the portfolios of several of his key ministers, including Smriti Irani who was shifted from Human Resource Development (HRD) to textiles ministry, while Prakash Javadekar was promoted to Cabinet rank and moved from the ministry of environment and forests to the crucial HRD ministry.
The changes, announced on Tuesday evening after a meeting of the PM and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah, indicated Modi has rewarded performers and beefed up portfolios, which were found to be laggardly. Irani being shifted is an indication that the PM thought it better to have humbler individual at the HRD, apart from the fact her performance was thought to have been average. No meaningful reform has taken place in the HRD ministry.
Another key change was entrusting the parliamentary affairs ministry to Ananth Kumar, while M Venkaiah Naidu was moved to the information and broadcasting Ministry, which was the additional portfolio of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
The change comes barely a fortnight before the start of the monsoon session of Parliament, where the government is keen to pass the goods and services tax Constitution amendment Bill. Many in the BJP have felt that Ananth Kumar would do a better job of floor management. To strengthen his hands, the PM has made veteran S S Ahluwalia a minister of state for parliamentary affairs, divesting Rajiv Pratap Rudy of the portfolio.
In the finance ministry, the PM has appointed two new ministers to Jaitley, while his deputy Jayant Sinha has been shifted to civil aviation. Arjun Ram Meghwal and Santosh Gangwar will be ministers of state in the finance ministry. Party leaders see Sinha’s reallocation as a promotion, at a time when the civil aviation sector is active, and the ministry is headed by Telugu Desam Party’s Ashok Gajapathi Raju.
Sadananda Gowda, the former Karnataka chief minister, was clearly a non-performer and has been sent to the ministry of statistics and programme Implementation. The law portfolio has been given to Ravi Shankar Prasad, but Uttar Pradesh leader Manoj Sinha has been promoted and given Independent charge of the ministry of communications. It was earlier with Prasad.
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| CABINET MINISTERS | ||
| 1 | Shri Raj Nath Singh | Home Affairs |
| 2 | Smt. Sushma Swaraj | External Affairs |
| 3 | Shri Arun Jaitley |
Finance Corporate Affairs |
| 4 | Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu |
Urban Development Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Information & Broadcasting |
| 5 | Shri Nitin Jairam Gadkari |
Road Transport and Highways Shipping |
| 6 | Shri Manohar Parrikar | Defence |
| 7 | Shri Suresh Prabhu | Railways |
| 8 | Shri D.V. Sadananda Gowda | Statistics & Programme Implementation |
| 9 | Sushri Uma Bharati | Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation |
| 10 | Dr. Najma A. Heptulla | Minority Affairs |
| 11 | Shri Ramvilas Paswan | Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution |
| 12 | Shri Kalraj Mishra | Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises |
| 13 | Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi | Women and Child Development |
| 14 | Shri Ananthkumar |
Chemicals and Fertilizers Parliamentary Affairs |
| 15 | Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad |
Law & Justice Electronics & Information Technology |
| 16 | Shri Jagat Prakash Nadda | Health & Family Welfare |
| 17 | Shri Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati | Civil Aviation |
| 18 | Shri Anant Geete | Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises |
| 19 | Smt. Harsimrat Kaur Badal | Food Processing Industries |
| 20 | Shri Narendra Singh Tomar |
Rural Development Panchayati Raj Drinking Water and Sanitation |
| 21 | Shri Chaudhary Birender Singh | Steel |
| 22 | Shri Jual Oram | Tribal Affairs |
| 23 | Shri Radha Mohan Singh | Agriculture & Farmers Welfare |
| 24 | Shri Thaawar Chand Gehlot | Social Justice and Empowerment |
| 25 | Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani | Textiles |
| 26 | Dr. Harsh Vardhan |
Science and Technology Earth Sciences |
| 27 | Shri Prakash Javadekar | Human Resource Development |
| MINISTERS OF STATE | ||
| 1 | Shri Rao Inderjit Singh |
Planning (Independent Charge) Urban Development Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation |
| 2 | Shri Bandaru Dattatreya | Labour and Employment (Independent Charge) |
| 3 | Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy | Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (Independent Charge) |
| 4 | Shri Vijay Goel |
Youth Affairs and Sports (Independent Charge) Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation |
| 5 | Shri Shripad Yesso Naik | AAYUSH (Independent Charge) |
| 6 | Shri Dharmendra Pradhan |
Petroleum and Natural Gas (Independent Charge) |
| 7 | Shri Piyush Goyal |
Power (Independent Charge) Coal (Independent Charge) New and Renewable Energy (Independent Charge) Mines (Independent Charge) |
| 8 | Dr. Jitendra Singh |
Development of North Eastern Region (Independent Charge) Prime Minister’s Office Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions Department of Atomic Energy Department of Space |
| 9 | Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman | Commerce and Industry (Independent Charge) |
| 10 | Dr. Mahesh Sharma |
Culture (Independent Charge) Tourism (Independent Charge) |
| 11 | Shri Manoj Sinha |
Communications (Independent Charge) Railways |
| 12 | Shri Anil Madhav Dave | Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Independent Charge) |
| 13 | General V.K. Singh | External Affairs |
| 14 | Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar | Finance |
| 15 | Shri Faggan Singh Kulaste | Health & Family Welfare |
| 16 | Shri Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi |
Minority Affairs Parliamentary Affairs |
| 17 | Shri S.S. Ahluwalia |
Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Parliamentary Affairs |
| 18 | Shri Ramdas Athawale | Social Justice & Empowerment |
| 19 | Shri Ram Kripal Yadav | Rural Development |
| 20 | Shri Haribhai Parthbhai Chaudhary | Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises |
| 21 | Shri Giriraj Singh | Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises |
| 22 | Shri Hansraj Gangaram Ahir | Home Affairs |
| 23 | Shri G.M. Siddeshwara | Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises |
| 24 | Shri Ramesh Chandappa Jigajinagi | Drinking Water & Sanitation |
| 25 | Shri Rajen Gohain | Railways |
| 26 | Shri Parshottam Rupala |
Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Panchayati Raj |
| 27 | Shri M.J. Akbar | External Affairs |
| 28 | Shri Upendra Kushwaha | Human Resources Development |
| 29 | Shri Radhakrishnan P. |
Road Transport & Highways Shipping |
| 30 | Shri Kiren Rijiju | Home Affairs |
| 31 | Shri Krishan Pal | Social Justice & Empowerment |
| 32 | Shri Jasvantsinh Sumanbhai Bhabhor | Tribal Affairs |
| 33 | Dr. Sanjeev Kumar Balyan | Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation |
| 34 | Shri Vishnu Deo Sai | Steel |
| 35 | Shri Sudarshan Bhagat | Agriculture and Farmers Welfare |
| 36 | Shri Y.S. Chowdary |
Science and Technology Earth Science |
| 37 | Shri Jayant Sinha | Civil Aviation |
| 38 | Col. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore | Information & Broadcasting |
| 39 | Shri Babul Supriyo |
Urban Development Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation |
| 40 | Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti | Food Processing Industries |
| 41 | Shri Vijay Sampla | Social Justice & Empowerment |
| 42 | Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal |
Finance Corporate Affairs |
| 43 | Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey | Human Resource Development |
| 44 | Shri Ajay Tamta | Textiles |
| 45 | Smt. Krishna Raj | Women & Child Development |
| 46 | Shri Mansukh L. Mandaviya | Road Transport & Highways, Shipping, Chemicals & Fertilizers |
| 47 | Smt. Anupriya Patel | Health & Family Welfare |
| 48 | Shri C.R. Chaudhary | Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution |
| 49 | Shri P.P. Chaudhary |
Law & Justice Electronics & Information Technology |
| 50 | Dr. Subhash Ramrao Bhamre | Defence |
