Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has retained all key cabinet ministers in their portfolios in the new government, signalling that he still calls the shots despite having to rely on coalition allies for a majority in parliament.
He chaired the first meeting of his Union Cabinet this week and allocated portfolios to ministers a day after taking oath in a glittering ceremony at Rashtrapathi Bhavan.
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fell well short of the majority mark on its own in the election that ended this month, but the government announced there will be no change in personnel at the four senior-most ministries – finance, home affairs, defence and foreign affairs. The party also retained other key ministries like commerce and agriculture.
Only 5 out of the 30 cabinet seats were given to the allies, in ministries including civil aviation, food processing, steel, animal husbandry, and small and medium enterprises.
The BJP won 240 of the 543 seats in the lower house of parliament in the election. The alliance it leads won a total of 293 seats, crossing the majority mark of 272 seats.
Aside from BJP, the two main constituents of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) are two regional parties focused on getting funds for their states, Andhra Pradesh in the south and Bihar in the east.
Key ministries in the new National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government were allocated to senior leaders of the BJP: Home Affairs to Amit Shah, Defence to Rajnath Singh, External Affairs to S Jaishankar, Road Transport to Nitin Gadkari and Finance to Nirmala Sitharaman.
The allocations target continuity and were largely on the lines of the previous NDA government.
First time MP and four time chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been made the Union Agriculture Minister.
According to an official press release, Prime minister Narendra Modi will be also in-charge of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions; Department of Atomic Energy; Department of Space, all important policy issues and all other portfolios not allocated to any minister.
