Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired the first meeting of his new Union Cabinet on Monday, allocating portfolios to his ministers a day after a grand swearing-in ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan. The ceremony, attended by dignitaries and leaders from across the country, saw 71 ministers take oath, including 30 Cabinet Ministers, five Ministers of State with Independent charge, and 36 Ministers of State.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the single-largest party in the recent general elections, but fell short of a majority. However, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the BJP secured 293 seats together, paving the way for Modi's historic third term.
This is the first time the BJP under Modi has needed support from its allies to form a government after a decade of commanding the majority in the parliament. Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party (TDP) emerged as the BJP’s strongest ally in the NDA with 16 Lok Sabha seats, followed by Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal United (JDU) with 12 seats.
List Of BJP's Allies And Their Portfolio:
K Ram Mohan Naidu, TDP – Civil aviation minister
Chirag Paswan, LJP-RV – Food processing ministry
Jitan Ram Manjhi, Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) – MSME ministry
Rajiv Ranjan Singh, JD(U) – Panchayati raj and animal husbandry ministry
H D Kumaraswamy, JD(S)– Minister for heavy industries and steel
Jayant Chaudhary, RLD – MoS (independent charge) in skill development ministry and MoS in education ministry
Prataprao Jadhav, Shiv Sena – MoS (independent charge) of Ayush ministry and MoS in health ministry
Ram Nath Thakur, JD(U) – Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
Ramdas Athawale, Republican Party of India (Athawale) – Minister of State in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment
Dr. Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani, TDP – Minister of State in the Ministry of Rural Development and Minister of State in the Ministry of Communications
Anupriya Patel, Apna Dal (Soneylal) – Minister of State for Health and Fertilisers Ministry
