Jaitley is big player after Modi; Rajnath gets home, Sushma foreign
New Delhi, May 27 (IANS) Arun Jaitley has turned out to be the most important person in the new government after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with three heavy portfolios of finance, defence and corporate affairs, it was announced Tuesday.
The Rashtrapati Bhavan released the portfolio allocation of 46 ministers, including 24 cabinet ministers, of the government sworn in Monday evening. Sushma Swaraj is the new foreign minister and Rajnath Singh will head the home ministry.
Modi has kept with him, like some of his predecessors, the portfolios of personnel, public grievances and pensions as well as the departments of atomic energy and space besides any other department not allocated to any minister.
He will, as the presidential communique states, be in charge of “all important policy issues”.
Rajnath Singh, the BJP president who is likely to hand over the party baton to someone else, gets the important portfolio of home (interior) and Sushma Swaraj gets both external affairs and overseas Indian affairs.
M. Venkaiah Naidu, a former BJP president, also gets a lot of responsibility with urban development, housing and urban poverty alleviation as well as parliamentary affairs.
Nitin Gadkari, another former BJP president, takes charge of road transport and highways as well as Shipping while D.V. Sadananda Gowda will the railway minister.
V.K. Singh, a former army chief, is the minister of state for external affairs, overseas Indian affairs and development of north eastern region (independent charge).
Harsh Vardhan, the former Delhi chief ministerial candidate, is the new health minister while former TV star Smriti Irani gets the heavy portfolio of human resources development.
Following is the full list of cabinet ministers and ministers of state:
PRIME MINISTER:
Narendra Modi: Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Department of Atomic Energy Department of Space, All important policy issues and all other portfolios not allocated to any minister.
CABINET MINISTERS:
Rajnath Singh: Home Affairs
Sushma Swaraj: External Affairs, Overseas Indian Affairs
Arun Jaitley: Finance, Corporate Affairs, Defence
M. Venkaiah Naidu: Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Parliamentary Affairs
Nitin Gadkari: Road Transport and Highways, Shipping
D.V. Sadananda Gowda: Railways
Uma Bharati: Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation
Najma A. Heptulla: Minority Affairs
Gopinathrao Munde: Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Drinking Water and Sanitation
Ramvilas Paswan: Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
Kalraj Mishra: Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
Maneka Gandhi: Women and Child Development
Ananth Kumar: Chemicals and Fertilizers
Ravi Shankar Prasad: Communications and Information Technology, Law and Justice
Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati: Civil Aviation
Anant Geete: Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises
Harsimrat Kaur Badal: Food Processing Industries
Narendra Singh Tomar: Mines, Steel, Labour and Employment
Jual Oram: Tribal Affairs
Radha Mohan Singh: Agriculture
Thaawar Chand Gehlot: Social Justice and Empowerment
Smriti Irani: Human Resource Development
Harsh Vardhan: Health and Family Welfare
MINISTERS OF STATE:
V.K. Singh: Development of North Eastern Region (Independent Charge),
External Affairs, Overseas Indian Affairs
Inderjit Singh Rao: Planning (Independent Charge), Statistics and Programme Implementation (Independent Charge), Defence
Santosh Kumar Gangwar: Textiles (Independent Charge), Parliamentary Affairs, Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation
Shripad Yesso Naik: Culture (Independent Charge), Tourism (Independent Charge)
Dharmendra Pradhan: Petroleum and Natural Gas (Independent Charge)
Sarbananda Sonowal: Skill Development, Entrepreneurship, Youth Affairs and Sports (Independent Charge)
Prakash Javadekar: Information and Broadcasting (Independent Charge), Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Independent Charge), Parliamentary Affairs
Piyush Goyal: Power (Independent Charge), Coal (Independent Charge), New and Renewable Energy (Independent Charge)
Jitendra Singh: Science and Technology (Independent Charge), Earth Sciences (Independent Charge), Prime Minister Office, Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Space
Nirmala Sitharaman: Commerce and Industry (Independent Charge), Finance,
Corporate Affairs
G.M. Siddeshwara: Civil Aviation
Manoj Sinha: Railways
Nihalchand: Chemicals and Fertilizers
Upendra Kushwaha: Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Drinking Water and Sanitation
P. Radhakrishnan: Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises
Kiren Rijiju, Home Affairs
Krishan Pal: Road Transport and Highways, Shipping
Sanjeev Kumar Balyan: Agriculture, Food Processing Industries
Mansukhbhai Dhanjibhai Vasava: Tribal Affairs
Raosaheb Dadarao Danve: Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
Vishnu Deo Sai: Mines, Steel, Labour and Employment
Sudarshan Bhagat: Social Justice and Empowerment