Team Blitz India
NEW DELHI: Continuity was the mantra in the NDA Government with most of the Cabinet ministers retaining the portfolios they had handled in the previous Modi Government. The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) members remain the same. Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, NirmalaSitharaman, and S Jaishankar retained their portfolios of Defence, Home Affairs and Cooperation, Finance and Corporate Affairs, and External Affairs, respectively. NitinGadkari will continue to handle the Road Transport and Highways portfolio.
RashtrapatiBhavan announced the portfolios on June 10 evening, almost 24 hours after the 72-member council of ministers took the oath of office.
Also,Union ministers PiyushGoyal, AshwiniVaishnaw, Dharmendra Pradhan, SarabanandaSonowal, HardeepPuri, and BhupenderYadav retained at least the principal portfolios that they had handled in the previous government.
PM Modi divested them of their additional portfolios to accommodate newer entrants and allies. for example, PiyushGoyalretained the Commerce and Industry portfolio, but Textiles, Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution were taken away. Vaishnaw retained Railways and Information Technology, but lost telecom. He, however, got Information & Broadcasting Ministry too.
The Communications portfolio that Vaishnaw handled has now gone to JyotiradityaScindia, who was the Civil Aviation minister in the previous government. Among others, the ministries of Power and New and Renewable Energy were also separated.
The significant change in the Cabinet was the return of JP Nadda, who was BJP president, to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, a portfolio he had managed in the Modi 1.0 government. The PM also entrusted him with the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers.
