India / Now 77 ministers in Modi's team, see whose promotion and new entry

New Delhi: The NDA government at the Center led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) expanded the cabinet on Wednesday. This is the first reshuffle and extension of the second term of PM Narendra Modi. President Ram Nath Kovind also administered the oath to the seven promoted ministers along with the new ministers inducted into Modi's team. A total of 15 cabinet ministers have taken oath.

Apart from PM Modi, there are now 77 ministers in the Union Cabinet. Before the expansion, the total number of cabinet members was 53. Of these, 12 were discharged leaving a total of 41 members. In the cabinet reshuffle, 7 have been promoted and 36 new faces have been included. The President has administered oath to 43 members.

First of all, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Narayan Rane took oath as a Union Cabinet Minister. Former Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal took oath as a Union Cabinet Minister. After these, seven-time MP Virendra Kumar took oath as a Union Cabinet Minister. Jyodiraditya Scindia, Rajya Sabha member from Madhya Pradesh took oath as a Union Cabinet Minister. JDU leader and Rajya Sabha member from Bihar RCP Singh was sworn in as a Union Cabinet Minister.

Ashwini Vaishnav, a Rajya Sabha member from Odisha and a former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, took oath as a Union cabinet minister. Lok Sabha member from Hajipur in Bihar Pashupati Kumar Paras was administered the oath of Union Cabinet Minister. Kiran Rijiju, R. K. Singh, Hardeep Singh Puri were made Union Cabinet Ministers. Hardeep Singh Puri was earlier Minister of State (Independent Charge). Apart from these, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur has also been promoted. Mansukh Mandaviya, Bhupendra Yadav, Purushottam Rupala, G. Kishan Reddy has also been sworn in as a Union Cabinet Minister. Kishan Reddy was earlier the Minister of State for Home.

Apart from these, SP Singh Baghel, Rajeev Chandrashekhar, Shobha Karandlaje, Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma, Darshana Jardosh, Meenakshi Lekhi, Annapurna Devi, Kaushal Kishore, BL Verma, Ajay Bhatt, Ajay Kumar, Chauhan Devusinh, Bhagwant Khuba, Bharti Pawar, Pankaj Chaudhary , Shantanu Thakur, Munjpara Mahendrabhai, L Murugan, Nishit Pramanik, A Narayanaswamy, Kapil Patil, Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, Pratima Bhowmik, Subhash Sarkar, Bhagwat Karad, Bishwesar Tudu and John Barla have also become Union ministers for the first time.

Among the ministers who took oath on Wednesday, Dr Virendra Kumar, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sarbananda Sonowal, Kiren Rijiju, RK Singh, Hardeep Puri, Mansukh Mandaviya, Purushottam Rupala, G Kishan Reddy, Anurag Singh Thakur and Anupriya Patel are the only ministers who have been Has discharged the responsibility of Union Minister.