Union Council of Ministers expanded 43 Ministers including 15 Cabinet Ministers take oath following all COVID protocols

      Forty three Ministers were sworn in to the Union Council of Ministers as Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi inducted many new faces. They include 15 Cabinet Ministers and 28 Ministers of State. BJP leaders, Shri Narayan Rane, Shri Jyotiraditya Scindia, Shri Sarbananda Sonowal, Dr Virendra Kumar, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw and Shri Bhupendra Yadav and Shri R C P Singh of JD(U) and Shri Pashupati Kumar Paras of LJP were sworn in as Cabinet Ministers. Union Ministers, Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, Shri Mansukh Mandaviya, Shri Kiren Rijiju, Shri Raj Kumar Singh, Shri G Kishan Reddy, Shri Parshottam Rupala and Shri Anurag Thakur were also elevated to the rank of Cabinet Ministers. President, Shri Ram Nath Kovind administered the oath of office and Secrecy today at a ceremony organized at the Rashtrapati Bhavan while following all COVID protocols.
      BJP MPs Shri Pankaj Chaudhury, Shri S P Singh Baghel, Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Ms Sobha Karandlaje, Shri Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma, Ms Darshana Vikram Jardosh, Ms Meenakshi Lekhi, Ms Annapurna Devi, Shri A Narayanaswamy and Shri Kaushal Kishore, Shri Ajay Bhatt, Shri B L Verma, Shri Ajay Kumar, Shri Chauhan Devusinh and Ms Anupriya Patel of Apna Dal were sworn in as the Ministers of State. Besides, BJP leaders Shri Kapil Patil, Shri Subhash Sarkar, Ms Bharati Pawar, Shri Bishweswar Tudu, Shri Shantanu Thakur, Shri John Barala, Shri L Murugan and Shri Nisith Pramanik and others also took oath as Ministers of State.
    The swearing-in ceremony was attended by Vice President, Shri M Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, Defence Minister, Shri  Rajnath Singh, Home Minister, Shri Amit Shah, BJP President, Shri J P Nadda and several Union Ministers. This is the first Cabinet expansion of the Narendra Modi government in the second tenure.
   With today's expansion of the Council of Ministers, the Narendra Modi Government has a record representation of OBC, SC and ST communities. 27 OBC Ministers including 5 with Cabinet rank, 12 ministers from Scheduled Caste communities and eight from Scheduled Tribes are now in the Union Council of Ministers. Women representation has also increased with the induction of new faces. Five leaders of the minority community are now Ministers in the Modi government.
    Besides, the Cabinet expansion also witnessed a fine balance of young and experienced leaders. In the expanded Council of Ministers, 14 ministers are below the age of 50 years including six Cabinet Ministers.   There are 46 leaders with experience of being Ministers in the Central Government and 23 who have been elected to the Parliament three or more times. Professionals with educational and functional experience have also found a place.   
     Meanwhile, the President of India, as advised by the Prime Minister, has accepted the resignation of the following members of the Council of Ministers viz. Shri D.V. Sadananda Gowda, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad,   Shri Thaawarchand Gehlot,  Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank', Dr. Harsh Vardhan,  Shri Prakash Javadekar,  Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar,             Shri Babul Supriyo,  Shri Dhotre Sanjay Shamrao,  Shri Rattan Lal Kataria,    Shri Pratap Chandra Sarangi and Sushri Debasree Chaudhuri. (Source:india.gov.in)