Cabinet Reshuffle: Know Who Went Out And Who Came In?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today inducted 19 new ministers into his cabinet to further strengthen his administration. Five ministers also resigned to make way for the new entrants as the council of ministers can have a maximum of 82 members. With the new inductions, Modi’s council of ministers stands at 78.

Who resigned to make way?

Nihal Chand (Minister of Chemicals & Fertilizers)
Ram Shankar Katheria (MoS, Human Resource Development)
Sanwar Lal Jat (Union minister of state, Water Resources)
Masukhbhai D Vasva (Union minister for tribal affairs)
MK Kundariya (MoS for Agriculture), all of them belonging to the BJP.

The new Ministers:

Modi government promoted Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar to Cabinet rank. The other 19 new ministers are as follows:

1. MJ Akbar: BJP Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh
2. SS Ahluwalia: BJP Lok Sabha MP from Darjeeling
3. Ramesh Chandappa Jigjinagi: BJP Lok Sabha MP from Bijapur
4. Parshottam Rupala: BJP Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat
5. Anil Madhav Dave: BJP Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh
6. Arjun Ram Meghwal: BJP Lok Sabha MP from Bikaner
7. Vijay Goel: BJP Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan
8. Rajen Gohain: BJP Lok Sabha MP from Nawgong
9. Mahendra Nath Pandey: BJP Lok Sabha MP from Chandauli
10. CR Chaudhary: BJP MP from Nagaur
11. PP Chaudhary: BJP MP from Pali
12. Ramdas Athawale: RPI Rajya Sabha MP from Maharashtra
13. Subhash Ramrao Bhamre: BJP Lok Sabha MP from Dhule
14. Jaswant Sinh Bhabhor: BJP MP from Dahod
15. Mansukh Mandaviya: BJP Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat
16. Faggan Singh Kulaste: BJP Lok Sabha MP from Mandla
17. Ajay Tamta, BJP Lok Sabha MP from Almora
18. Anupriya Singh Patel, Apna Dal MP from Mirzapur
19. Krishna Raj, BJP MP from ShahjahanpuCabinet Reshuffle – Who went out? Who came in? NDA Overshoots UPA’s Cabinet Size

The reshuffle goes against the initial promise of minimum government as the size of the cabinet has overshot the size of the UPA cabinet who were criticized for it. The government initially started on a high note, keeping minimum number of people as ministers. However, the cabinet grew by size as more people were inducted under various responsibilities.

Strategically, the NDA government has given ministry positions to representatives of the backward classes that will obviously play a crucial part in the upcoming elections in states like Uttar Pradesh.

The questions remain – is bigger cabinet an inevitable feature of Indian government which can’t be done away with ? Or it is just about political will?