(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday expanded his union council of ministers, inducting 21 new faces, including four with cabinet rank, with the average age being 56, seeking to consolidate party's gains of the Lok Sabha elections by giving representation to various regions and communities.
The total strength of the council of ministers now goes up to 66.
The much-anticipated first ministry expansion was marred with ally Shiv Sena calling off participation in the government at the last minute, exacerbating their already strained ties.
Former Shiv Sena leader Suresh Prabhu was sworn in as a cabinet minister after he quit the Shiv Sena. Prabhu, who is the prime minister's interlocutor for the G20, has joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and is expected to become a Rajya Sabha member. In Mumbai, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray described Prabhu's joining the BJP as "unfortunate" but indicated that Anant Geete, party's representative in the Modi government, will continue for the time being.
Thackeray put a condition that his party will sit in opposition in Maharashtra if BJP takes support of NCP to prove its majority in the state assembly November 12. The Sena at the last minute recalled Anil Desai, who it had nominated for induction in the union ministry. According to reports, Desai arrived in Delhi for the oath-taking ceremony but was ordered to return.
Shiv Sena and BJP have failed to reach an agreement over government formation in Maharashtra.
Modi's 45-member ministry yesterday added to it four cabinet ministers, three ministers of state with independent charge, and 14 ministers of state (MoS). Portfolios of the new ministers had not been announced till last evening. The first meeting of the expanded council of ministers is slated for today.
Former Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar, who is widely tipped to get the defence portfolio, was the first to take oath at the Durbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan.
BJP general secretary J P Nadda, who is known to be close to Modi and party chief Amit Shah, and Birender Singh, who left the Congress ahead of the recent Haryana assembly elections to join the BJP, were administered oath as cabinet ministers by President Pranab Mukherjee.
Congress leaders including former prime minister Manmohan Singh and party president Sonia Gandhi stayed away from the swearing-in ceremony.
Modi also brought into his ministry the party's known Muslim face in Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, adding to Najma Heptullah, who is minority affairs minister.
He also added to the representation of women by inducting Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, BJP MP from Fatehpur in Uttar Pradesh, taking the number to eight.
Giriraj Singh, 61, who courted controversy with his comment that "those who oppose Narendra Modi should go to Pakistan" and was also booked for the hate speech, also got a place as minister of state.
The new ministry has most people in their 50s, with the oldest being Bandaru Dattatreya at 68.
The youngest is well-known singer Babul Supriyo Baral, the only face in the ministry from West Bengal. The Asansol MP, who was inducted as MoS, is 43, while Olympian shooter Colonel Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore is 44.
The only National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ally to get a berth in yesterday's expansion was Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Rajya Sabha MP, Y S Chowdary.
Among those who were widely tipped to get a berth and were inducted are Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Ram Kirpal Yadav, a former Lalu Prasad aide who quit the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Jayant Sinha, son of BJP veteran Yashwant Sinha, and Vijay Sampla, BJP Hoshiarpur MP. Sinha, IIT-Delhi and Harvard-educated Hazaribagh MP, is among the professionals inducted in the ministry to bring fresh talent.
The ministry expansion also signalled BJP's efforts to consolidate its gains in the states it had done well in the Lok Sabha elections and give representation to various dominant castes and communities to expand its social base in view of the assembly elections over the next few years.
Keeping in mind next year's elections in Bihar which are crucial for the BJP, the council has three new faces from the state - Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Ram Kirpal Yadav and Giriraj Singh, all belonging to different and numerically significant communities in the state.
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.