Srinagar: Nine new faces took oath as ministers of state while four junior ministers were elevated to the cabinet rank in a third rejig of his team by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday.
According to an official release, the President of India Ram Nath Kovind as advised by the Prime Minister appointed Dharmendra Pradhan, Piyush Goyal, Nirmala Sitharaman and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi as cabinet ministers.
The nine new faces who took other as Ministers of State include Shiv Pratap Shukla, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Dr. Virendra Kumar, Anantkumar Hegde, Raj Kumar Singh, Hardeep Singh Puri, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Dr. Satya Pal Singh and Alphons Kannanthanam.
The President administered the oath of office and secrecy to the members of the Council of Ministers at a ceremony held in the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
All the new ministers are from the BJP as its allies were not part of the exercise.
Two of the new faces—Kannanthanam and Puri— are presently not members of Parliament and are likely to be elected to the Rajya Sabha within the stipulated six months.
Three of the BJP MPs –Kumar, Hegde and Shekhawat—are from Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Rajasthan respectively where Assembly polls are due next year.
