Kiren Rijiju retained in new cabinet
NEW DELHI, May 30: 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.
Modi, 68, was administered the oath of office and secrecy by President Ram Nath Kovind at a glittering ceremony on the forecourt of the Rashtraparti Bhavan.
Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Smriti Irani, Nirmala Sitharaman and Prakash Javadekar were among the 36 ministers who were sworn in on Thursday for a second term, besides 20 MPs who took oath of office as cabinet ministers for the first time.
While 24 cabinet ministers were sworn-in in the Modi government, nine took oath as ministers of state (independent charge) and 24 others as ministers of state.
Home minister in the previous Narendra Modi government, Rajnath Singh, was the first to take oath after the prime minister.
Ram Vilas Paswan, DV Sadananda Gowda, Narendra Singh Tomar, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Thaawar Chand Gehlot, Harsh Vardhan, Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan and Muqtar Abbas Naqvi were among those who got a second chance.
Those who took oath as ministers of state with independent charge are Kiren Rijiju, Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Rao Inderjit Singh, Shripad Yesso Naik, Jitendra Singh, Prahalad Singh Patel, Raj Kumar Singh, Hardeep Singh Puri and Mansukh L Mandaviya.
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.
Former finance minister Arun Jaitley had written to Modi on Wednesday and said that he didn’t want to be a part of the new government due to health reasons.
Top opposition leaders, including former PM Manmohan Singh, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, corporate honchos, film stars, chief ministers and a galaxy of leaders from the BIMSTEC countries were part of the nearly 8,000 guests at the ceremony. (PTI)
