Some old faces, some new: Who will be the ministers in Modi 3.0 Cabinet?

It is a big day for Narendra Modi. He has been sworn in as prime minister for a historic third term. Coalition politics is back in the spotlight. But what will his team look like?

While the BJP will retain the big four ministries (defence, external affairs, home affairs and finance), it is also accommodating leaders of alliance partners, like the Telegu Desam Party and Janata Dal (United), among others. Seventy-two ministers are taking oath. Leading the pack was PM Modi.

Modi met his ministers over a cup of tea at his residence on Sunday morning. There were some expected names and some surprises. Some new faces have made it to the list.

We take a look at who are the ministers in the new government.Rajnath Singh (BJP)

Rajnath Singh was administered the oath after PM Modi.

Singh is confirmed to get a Cabinet position. He is an MP from Lucknow. He is expected to continue in his former role as defence minister.

Amit Shah (BJP)

Amit Shah was the third to take oath at Rashtrapati Bhavan. He received a call this morning for tea at 7, Lok Kalyan Marg.

The senior BJP leader helmed the home ministry and is likely to continue with the same portfolio.Nitin Gadkari (BJP)

Senior BJP leader will be part of the Cabinet and is expected to continue as the minister for road transport and highways.

JP Nadda (BJP)

BJP chief JP Nadda returns as minister in the Cabinet. It remains to be seen what portfolio will he get.

Nadda was in charge of the health ministry in PM Modi’s first Cabinet from 2014 to 2019. In 2020, he took charge as the party chief, replacing Amit Shah.

Shivraj Singh Chouhan (BJP)

Shivraj Singh Chouhan is one of BJP’s old warhorses and will get a Cabinet berth.

He has been Madhya Pradesh’s longest-serving CM, holding the position since 2005. He won in the 2023 Assembly elections but the BJP leadership replaced him with the low-profile Ujjain MLA
Mohan Yadav
as the CM.

He returned to contest the Lok Sabha polls after 20 years and was elected as the MP from the Vidisha constituency.

Nirmala Sitharaman (BJP)

Nirmala Sitharaman will also be part of PM Modi’s new Cabinet. She held the finance ministry in the earlier government.

S Jaishankar (BJP)

S Jaishankar will return as external affairs minister. He is the first confirmed minister of the new Cabinet, reports The Indian Express.

He is the first foreign secretary who has gone on to become the EAM. He has played a big role in India’s foreign policy in the last couple of years, taking on challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, and the Israel-Hamas war.

ML Khattar (BJP)

Former Haryana chief minister ML Khattar took oath on Sunday. He will be part of the new Cabinet.

Khattar was elected from the Karnal constituency in this Lok Sabha election.

Dharmendra Pradhan (BJP)

Pradhan is back in the Cabinet and will continue as Union minister.

He was the minister of education and minister of skill development & entrepreneurship in the earlier government. In Modi 3.0, he is likely to retain them.

Dr Virendra Kumar (BJP)

Dr Virenrdra Kumar will get a position in the new government.

Ashwini Vaishnaw (BJP)

Ashwinin Vaishnaw will continue to be part of PM Modi’s ministerial team.

The former IAS officer and IIT alumni was the railways minister and also held the communications, electronics & information technology portfolio.

Piyush Goyal (BJP)

Senior BJP leader Piyush Goyal took oath on Sunday.

He was the face-saver for the BJP in Mumbai. He won the Mumbai North constituency against Congress’ Bhushan Patil. He served as the minister of commerce & industry, consumer affairs & food & public distribution, and textiles in the earlier government.

Gajendra Singh Shekhawat (BJP)

Shekhawat will get a post in the Cabinet. He won from Rajasthan’s Jodhpur seat.

Shekhawat served as Union Jal Shakti Minister and Union Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare in Modi 2.0. After being named earlier, Shekhawat thanked Modi for giving him a chance for the third time.

Hardeep Singh Puri (BJP)

Puri has been named as part of the new government.

He held the portfolios of housing and urban affairs and petroleum and natural gas under Modi’s previous term. He is a former diplomat who took a plunge into politics.

Mansukh Mandaviya (BJP)

Mansukh Mandaviya took oath as a minister of the new Cabinet.

In the earlier government, he helmed the health ministry and the chemical and fertilisers ministry. He is a social activist and a businessman. The 51-year-old has a doctorate.

CR Paatil (BJP)

Senior BJP leader C R Paatil took oath as a minister. Paatil, who won from the Navsari seat in Gujarat, is also the state’s party president. He is said to be a trusted aide of PM Modi.

Jitendra Singh (BJP)

Jitendra Singh will get a berth in the new government.

He was the minister of state during Modi’s second term. He was MoS (independent charge) for the Ministry of Science and Technology, MoS for the Prime Minister’s Office, MoS for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, and MoS for Atomic Energy and Department of Space.

He is a medical practitioner (diabetologist and consultant physician) and a professor.

Jyotiraditya Scindia (BJP)

Scindia finds a place for himself in the Modi-led NDA government. He had the civil aviation portfolio earlier.

Jitin Prasada (BJP)

Jitin Prasada is a sitting minister in the Uttar Pradesh government led by Yogi Adityanath. He took oath as Union minister in the new Cabinet.

He won from the Pilibhit Lok Sabha constituency defeating Samajwadi Party’s Bhagwat Saran Gangwar.

Prasada was once one of the youngest ministers in the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government and was considered close to senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. He quit the Congress in 2021.

Kiren Rijiju (BJP)

One of the prominent leaders from the Northeast, Rijiju was sworn in on Sunday.

He won the Arunachal West seat during the election. In the earlier government, he was the Union minister of earth sciences and food processing industries.

A three-time MP, Rijiju has served as the minister of state (independent charge) of youth affairs and sports from May 2019 to July 2021 and helmed the law ministry too.

Suresh Gopi (BJP)

He is one of BJP’s star performers this election. The Malayalam cinema legend became the party’s first-ever MP from Kerala. He won from Thrissur.

He took oath as MoS on Sunday.

Giriraj Singh (BJP)

Giriaj Singh is part of the new government. He is the winning candidate from Bihar’s Begusarai.

He was the rural development and panchayati raj minister in the earlier government.

Jual Oram (BJP)

Jual Oram will get a ministerial position in the new government.

He is a six-time Sundargarh MP. He has been a Union Minister twice in the past.

Tokhan Sahu (BJP)

Sahu is a BJP leader rom Chhattisgarh. He won from Bilaspur constituency.

Arjun Ram Meghwal (BJP)

The BJP’s Arjun Ram Meghwal is among the leaders who took as minister in the new government on Sunday.

The 70-year-old was the Union minister of state (independent charge) for law and justice in the outgoing Modi government.

He is a post-graduate in political science and has law and MBA degrees. He was a Rajasthan Administrative Services officer before being promoted to the IAS, reports The Indian Express.Shantanu Thakur (BJP)

BJP’s Shantanu Thakur took oath as a minister. He won the Bangaon Lok Sabha seat in West Bengal.

Sukanta Majumdar (BJP)

The leader from Bengal took oath as MoS. He won from the Balurghat Lok Sabha constituency in West Bengal.Sarbananda Sonowal (BJP)

The former Assam chief minister and Union minister will be a minister in the new Cabinet. He is the party’s key face in the Northeast.

Sonowal handled the ports, shipping and waterways and AYUSH ministries and won from Assam’s Dibrugarh by 2.79 lakh votes.

He joined the BJP in 2011 after more than a decade with the Asom Gana Parishad. He was elected as MP from the party in 2004.

Prahlad Joshi (BJP)

Prahlad Joshi has been inducted into the new Cabinet.

In this election, he created a record of sorts by winning for the fifth time in a row in the Dharwad Lok Sabha Constituency. He was the Union minister of parliamentary affairs, coal and mines, in the previous government.

Raksha Khadse (BJP)

Raksha Khadse was sworn in as minister on Sunday. She is one of the few women MPs to make it to the Cabinet.

She is a leader from Maharashtra and contested from the Raver constituency. The 37-year-old is the daughter-in-law of former BJP leader Eknath Khadse.Satish Chandra Dubey (BJP)

Rajya Sabha MP Satish Chandra Dubey took oath as a minister in the new Narendra Modi-led NDA government today.

Savitri Thakur (BJP)

Savitri Thakur took oath as a minister. She won the Dhar seat in Madhya Pradesh.

Rao Inderjit Singh (BJP)

Haryana stalwart Rao Inderjit Singh was sworn in.

He served as the Union minister of state (independent charge) for planning and statistics and programme implementation as well as MoS for corporate affairs in the earlier government.

The former Congressman joined the BJP in 2014. In the Congress-led UPA government, Singh had served as the MoS for external affairs and later as the MoS for defence.Kamlesh Paswan (BJP)

Kamlesh Paswan won from the Bansgaon constituency in Uttar Pradesh this Lok Sabha election. He will be part of the new Cabinet.

V Somanna (BJP)

Senior BJP leader V Somanna took oath as a minister on Sunday. He won from the Tumkur Lok Sabha constituency in Karnataka.

Bhagirath Choudhary(BJP)

Senior BJP leader Bhagirath Choudhary was elected from the Ajmer constituency in Rajasthan. He will be part of the new government.

Bandi Sanjay (BJP)

BJP’s leader from Telangana was sworn in as Union minister on Sunday.

A fiery politician he was the president of the BJP unit in the state from May 2020 to July 2023. He has been elected as an MP this year and also won in 2019. He is known to have expanded the party’s footprint in the state.

G Kishan Reddy (BJP)

The Secunderabad MP G Kishan Reddy took oath today and is likely to get a minister of state rank.

Reddy is currently the BJP’s Telangana president and served as the Union minister for culture, tourism, and development of the North Eastern Region in the earlier government.

He is a representative of the backward classes. The party looks to further consolidate its position in Telangana by giving Reddy a role in the new ministry. He has been a member of the BJP since 1980.

Shobha Karandlaje (BJP)

Shobha Karandlaje was sworn into the Cabinet today. She is Bengaluru’s first-ever woman MP.

The 57-year-old Karandlaje had replaced MP, D V Sadananda Gowda, as a BJP candidate in Bangalore North, a party stronghold for a long time.

She was the Union minister of state for agriculture and farmers’ welfare.

S P Singh Baghel (BJP)

Senior BJP leader S P Singh Baghel took oath as a minister. He retained the Agra Lok Sabha constituency.

Harsh Malhotra (BJP)

The first-time MP has found place in the Cabinet. He won the Jamnapaar east Delhi seat against Aam Aadmi Party’s Kuldeep Kumar.

Malhotra was elected as a councillor from Welcome Colony in 2012 and was also mayor of the erstwhile East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) in 2015-16, reports Hindustan Times.

Raj Bhushan Choudhary (BJP)

BJP leader Raj Bhushan Choudhary took oath as a minister on Sunday. He won the Muzaffarpur constituency in Bihar in this Lok Sabha election.

Ravneet Singh Bittu (BJP)

Despite a loss from the Ludhiana seat in the Lok Sabha elections, Ravneet Singh Bittu has found a spot in the new Cabinet. He will be a MoS.

Bittu has been picked ahead of Taranjit Singh Sandhu, a former diplomat who lost from Amritsar; Parampal Kaur Sidhu, a former IAS officer who lost from Bathinda; and singer Hans Raj Hans, who lost from Faridkot, reports The Indian Express.

He is the grandson of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, who was assassinated by pro-Khalistan militants in Chandigarh on 31 August 1995.

Krishan Pal (BJP)

The Faridabad MP Krishan Pal took oath as a minister in the new NDA government.

Annapurna Devi (BJP)

BJP’s Annapurna Devi was inducted today. She was a prominent candidate from the Koderma constituency in Jharkhand.

Ajay Tamta (BJP)

The BJP leader from Uttarakhand took oath as part of the new government. He won the election from the Almora constituency, a SC category Lok Sabha seat in the state.

L Murugan (BJP)

BJP leader L Murugan took oath as a minister on Sunday. He will serve as an MoS.

He lost from Tamil Nadu’s Nilgiris constituency in the Lok Sabha polls.

Pankaj Chaudhary (BJP)

Pankaj Chaudhary won from the Maharajganj constituency in Uttar Pradesh. He has been made part of the new government. He was a MoS finance in Modi’s second term.

He won from the Maharajganj constituency in Uttar Pradesh.

Bhupender Yadav (BJP)

Yadav is BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan. He took oath as minister in the new government on Sunday.

He was the Union Cabinet minister for environment, forest & climate change; and labour & employment in the earlier government.

Shripad Yesso Naik (BJP)

He is a six-time North Goa MP and former Union minister. He will continue his ministerial innings.

Naik defeated his “friend’ and former Union Law Minister Ramakant Khalap of the Congress in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls by a margin of over 1.16 lakh votes.

Sanjay Seth (BJP)

Sanjay Seth, the BJP MP, from Ranchi. He took oath on Sunday as a minister in the NDA government.

Seth won against Congress’ Yashaswani Sahay in this election.Nityanand Rai (BJP)

He is a senior BJP leader. Nityanand Rai won from the Ujiarpur constituency in Bihar this election.Kirtivardhan Singh (BJP)

Senior BJP leader Kirtivardhan Singh took oath as a minister. He won from the Gonda Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh.

Durgadas Uikey (BJP)

Betul MP Durgadas Uikey took oath as a minister on Sunday.

Nimuben Bambhaniya (BJP)

Nimuben Bambhaniya, who won the Lok Sabha elections in Gujarat, has been inducted into the Union Cabinet as a minister of state.

The 57-year-old defeated Aam Aadmi Party’s Umesh Makwana by a huge margin of 4.55 lakh votes in the Bhavnagar constituency.

She served as the mayor of Bhavnagar for two terms between 2009-10 and 2015-18 and was the vice president of the BJP Mahila Morcha’s state unit between 2013 and 2021.

A former teacher, Bambhaniya joined the BJP in 2004 and entered electoral politics by contesting and winning the civic polls for three terms.

Murlidhar Mohol (BJP)

BJP’s Murlidhar Mohol will also be a part of the new Modi sarkar. Mohol is the MP-elect from Pune.

George Kurian (BJP)

A senior BJP leader, George Kurian has been rewarded, finding a place in the new Modi Sarkar. Sworn in as MoS, he has been with the BJP since it was founded in 1980.

Hailing from Kottayam district of Kerala, Kurian, a committed BJP worker who held the party flag high during its ups and downs, has never been identified with any of the factions of the saffron party in the state.

During the tenure of the first Narendra Modi government, Kurian was appointed as a member of the National Minority Commission. He was later elevated to the post of its vice chairman.

Pabitra Margherita (BJP)

Assam’s Rajya Sabha MP Pabitra Margherita was on Sunday inducted as a minister in the Narendra Modi government. A known name in the cultural sphere of Assam, Margherita joined politics in 2014 by becoming a member of the BJP.

He was soon appointed as a state spokesperson of the party. He has served in different party positions and was also the chairman of Jyoti Chitraban, a government-run film studio. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in March 2022.

Bhupathiraju Srinivasa Varma (BJP)

B Srinivasa Varma from the BJP took the oath on Sunday. The 57-year-old defeated YSRCP’s G Umabala in Narasapuram by a margin of 2.7 lakh votes, polling 7,07,343 votes in total. He’s a grassroots BJP leader from Bhimavaram, the rice bowl of Andhra Pradesh.

Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani (TDP)

Telugu Desam Party’s
Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani
took oath as MoS today.

He is the richest candidate to win the 2024 Lok Sabha election. He won from Andhra’s Guntur constituency and has assets worth Rs 5,700 crore. He beat his nearest rival, YSRCP’s Kilari Venkata Rosaiah, by over 3.4 lakh votes.

Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu (TDP)

The 36-year-old TDP leader took oath and became the youngest minister in the new Cabinet.

He is a three-time MP from Srikakulam Lok Sabha constituency. He holds an MBA degree and is the national general secretary of the TDP.

He was the party’s floor leader in the outgoing Lok Sabha. His father, KYerran Naidu, was a senior BJP leader, former MLA and MP, and a Union minister in the United Front government from 1996 to 1998, reports NDTV.

Lalan Singh (JD(U))

Rajeev Ranjan Singh, popularly known as Lalan Singh, is part of the new Cabinet. The four-term MP is a former national president of the JD(U) and has also served as Bihar chief minister.

The 69-year-old is a close aide of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and was mentored by former CM and socialist stalwart Karpoori Thakur.

Lalan Singh represented the Begusarai seat from 2004 to 2009. This election, he won the Munger seat.

Ramnath Thakur (JD(U))

He is the son of former Bihar CM, Karpoori Thakur, who was given a Bharat Ratna recently. Ramnath Thakur is a Rajya Sabha MP and is likely to get the MoS position.

He was a member of the Bihar Legislative Council and was appointed as the minister of sugarcane industries in Lalu Prasad Yadav’s first Cabinet. From November 2005 to November 2010, he held the positions of minister of revenue and land reforms, law, and information and public relations in Nitish Kumar’s second government, reports NDTV.BL Verma (BJP)

BJP’s BL Verma has received a space in the new government. He was among the several ministers-to-be who were present at Modi’s residence this morning.

Pratap Rao Jadhav (Shiv Sena)

Prataprao Jadhav is one of Shiv Sena’s seniormost leaders. An MP from Maharashtra’s Buldhana Lok Sabha constituency, he took oath as minister.

He is a four-time MP and three-time MLA. He was also a minister in the first Shiv Sena-BJP state government between 1995-1999.

When the party split, he joined Eknath Shinde.

Jayant Chaudhary (RJD)

Jayant Chaudhary took oath as minister on Sunday. He will get an MoS rank.

A Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Rajya Sabha MP, he is a representative of Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura constituency. He is known for his work at the grassroots level. He is the grandson of former Indian PM Charan Singh.

HD Kumaraswamy (JDS)

Janata Dal (Secular) leader HD Kumaraswamy will be part of the Council of Ministers. He won from the Mandya constituency.

The JD(S) has its eyes on the agriculture portfolio in the Cabinet but it is unclear what he will receive. The party won two seats in the recent Lok Sabha polls.

Kumaraswamy is the son of former prime minister HD Deve Gowda. He is the leader of the party and the former chief minister of Karnataka. He has had two stints as CM.

Chirag Paswan (LJP)

Lok Jan Shakti party leader Chirag Paswan took oath on Sunday. He won from Bihar’s Hajipur.

Chirag is the son of former minister Ram Vilas Paswan. He forayed into politics after a brief stint in the film industry and took over the leadership of the LJP after his father’s death in 2020.

Jitan Ram Manjhi (Hindustani Awam Morcha)

The former Bihar CM is part of Modi 3.0.

The Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) leader was Bihar’s CM between 2014 and 2015. The Dalit leader was the first chief minister from the state’s Musahar community.

An MLA since 1980, Manjhi was elected the Lok Sabha MP from Bihar’s Gaya.

Ramdas Athawale (RPI)

Republican Party of India’s Ramdas Athawale is another Maharashtra minister who was inducted into the Cabinet.

The Rajya Sabha member was also part of the last Modi government.

Anupriya Patel (Apna Dal, Soneylal)

Anupriya Patel, president of the Apna Dal (Soneylal), will be a part of Modi 3.0.

She has served as Union minister of state for commerce and industry since 2021. From 2016 to 2019, she was the MoS for health and family welfare.

The 43-year-old has been representing UP’s Mirzapur since 2014. She has been the president of Apan Dal (Soneylal) since 2016, reports NDTV.