Picture : Twitter / ANI
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a major rejig of his cabinet has brought in Sarbananda Sonowal, Narayan Rane and Jyotiraditya Scindia as Cabinet ministers while dropping as many as 12 ministers including Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, IT and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar.
As many as 15 Cabinet ministers, including some new faces, were sworn-in at the swearing in ceremony held in the Darbar Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhawan.
Bhupendra Yadav, who has been serving in the BJP organisation as a general secretary, was also sworn-in as a Cabinet minister. He has been the chief trouble shooter of the government on many occasions.
#CabinetExpansion2021 | Hardeep Singh Puri, Mansukh Mandaviya, Bhupender Yadav take oath as ministers. pic.twitter.com/qs9DsRAWC9
— ANI (@ANI) July 7, 2021
Rane, 69, a Rajya Sabha MP and a former Maharashtra chief minister, was the first to take oath.
After Rane, Sonowal, former Assam chief minister, took oath in English. The 58-year-old leader has earlier served as Union Minister of State (Independent charge) for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship; and Sports and Youth Affairs under Prime Minister Modi.
15 Ministers inducted into the Union Cabinet including Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sarbananda Sonowal, Anurag Thakur, Kiren Rijiju, Hardeep Puri. pic.twitter.com/rO6WK02Vh2
— ANI (@ANI) July 7, 2021
Reacting to Sonowal’s inclusion in the union cabinet , Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told ANI, After a long time, we’ve a cabinet minister from Assam. & happiness is doubled when we’ve an experienced person like Sarbananda Sonowal. It’s matter of pride to have people from N-E in Union cabinet. We also have Kiren Rijiju from Arunachal Pradesh.
Congress-turned-Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, a Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh, also took oath as a Cabinet minister. The 50-year-old leader has been Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power and Union Minister of State for Commerce & Communications in the earlier UPA government.
Lok Sabha MP from Tikamgarh in Madhya Pradesh Virendra Kumar, Rajya Sabha MP from Odisha Ashwini Vaishnaw, Rajya Sabha MP from Bihar and Janata Dal-United leader R C P Singh, Lok Sabha MP from Bihar’s Hajipur Pashupati Kumar Paras, were also sworn-in as Cabinet ministers.
Kiren Rijiju, R K Singh, Hardeep Singh Puri, Mansukh Mandaviya, Parshottam Rupala, G Kishan Reddy and Anurag Thakur were elevated to the Cabinet level.
