Narendra Modi was on Thursday sworn in as the 15th Prime Minister of India for the second term helming a 58-member ministry with BJP chief Amit Shah making his debut as a Union minister and former foreign secretary S Jaishankar.
Many veteran politicians were kept out of the new council of ministers. Sushma Swaraj was one of them besides Swaraj, who did not contest the elections citing health issues, eight time MP Maneka Gandhi and former minister of women and child development, six-time MP Radha Mohan Singh who handled the crucial agriculture portfolio have not made the cut.
The decision to keep Radha Mohan out seems to be influenced by the fact that over the last five years, the farm sector has been ravaged by a severe agricultural crisis that led to farmers' suicide and protests across the country. Maneka, news channels have reported, could be the pro-tem Speaker of Lok Sabha. Meanwhile, Swaraj, who is not a minister in the BJP government for the first time, may have excused herself on health grounds.
Arun Jaitley, who held the finance portfolio, had already opted out of the government for health reasons.
Modi can have as many as 80 ministers in the 543-member Lok Sabha. As per the Constitution, the total number of Union ministers, including the Prime Minister shall not exceed 15 per cent of the number of members in the Lok Sabha.
This is the second time Modi took the oath at the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan. Modi was sworn in by the then President Pranab Mukherjee in 2014 in the presence of over 3,500 guests including the heads of SAARC countries.
