New Delhi: A whopping one third of ministers in the new Modi government that were sworn-in to office and secrecy by the President of India Thursday are first timers in position.
Two former chief ministers — Ramesh Pokhriyal (Uttarakhand) and Arjun Munda (Jharkhand) — have taken oath as Union ministers for the first time. This will be the first innings as Union ministers for six Cabinet ministers and 13 Ministers of State in the Modi government.
Most prominent among them are Shah and Jaishankar, who are likely to get high profile ministries.
While Shah won Lok Sabha polls from Gandhinagar with a massive margin, Jaishankar is expected to reach Parliament through the Rajya Sabha route.
BJP’s Pralhad Joshi and Shiv Sena’s Arvind Sawant will also become Union ministers for the the first time.
Anurag Singh Thakur, Bihar BJP chief Nityanand Rai, former Kerala unit chief V Muraleedharan are also among those who have become part of the Union Council of ministers for the first time.
Other BJP MPs who have become ministers for the first time include Suresh Angadi (Karnataka), Rattan Lal Kataria (Haryana), Renuka Singh Saruta (Chhattisgarh), Som Prakash (Punjab), Rameswar Teli (Assam), Pratap Chandra Sarangi (Odisha), Kailash Choudhary (Rajasthan) and Debasree Chaudhuri (West Bengal).
Besides Prime Minister Narendra Modi, there are 57 ministers in the newly sworn-in Union Council of ministers.
(PTI)