While most of the names and faces remained the same as last time, the high-profile omissions were also apparent through their absence from the council of ministers
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s second cabinet and council of ministers took the oath of office on Thursday. While most of the names and faces remained the same as last time, the high-profile omissions were also apparent through their absence from the council of ministers.
The former finance minister is terribly ill and had himself requested to be removed from consideration for this cabinet.
Another top minister from PM Modi’s first term to not appear in the list of ministers is ex-foreign minister Sushma Swaraj. She is the second senior most minister not be inducted owing to health reasons.
One of the most notable misses was that of JP Nadda, who was the health minister in the last council of ministers. While most of his compatriots took office, he is touted as the next party chief after Amit Shah demits office.
While he was inducted in the first Modi cabinet with great expectations after the BJP weaned him away from ally Shiv Sena and made Railway Minister, he failed to live up to the expectations. Prabhu stepped down after two closely-spaced rail accidents in Muzaffarnagar and Auraiya in 2017.
The charismatic sports minister of PM Modi’s first term also has been dropped this time. He won from Jaipur rural. He is a former Olympian. He also held the charge of Information and Broadcasting minister after Smriti Irani was shifted out.
Another heavyweight who got the miss is Radha Mohan Singh who won this time from East Champaran seat in Bihar. He was the agriculture minister in the last council of ministers.
Also, Gautam Budh Nagar MP Mahesh Sharma too was missing from the list of ministers. He had defeated his closest rival of the SP-BS-RLD mahagathbandhan this time by over three lakh votes.
Hers was the next big name absent from the council of ministers. She was a women and child development minister in PM Modi’s first council. Gandhi had won from Sultanpur, defeating her closest rival and strongman Chandra Bhadra Singh ‘Sonu’ from the mahagathbandhan. This was a new seat for her as she had exchanged her old seat of Pilibhit with son Varun Gandhi who was MP from Sultanpur. She is expected to be the Pro-tem speaker.
Another significant miss was Apna Dal’s Anupriya Patel, who was MoS in last government. She had retained the Mirzapur seat for the NDA to take its tally in UP to 63.
Last but not the least, BJP rebel and former Union minister Yashwant Sinha’s son Jayant Sinha too missed the bus in PM Modi’s second consecutive council of ministers.
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