The second expansion by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in little more than two years since he took over in May 2014 saw several Dalit and OBC leaders given ministerial positions.
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The 19 new faces in the cabinet are, former Karnataka Home Minister, Ramesh Chandappa Jigajinagi; former Gujarat ministers, Purshotam Rupala and Jaswant Sinh Bhabhor; former Gujarat Agro-Industries Corporation chief, Mansukh Mandaviya and former Uttar Pradesh Urban Development Minister, Mahendra Nath Pandey.
Apart from getting first time MPs on board, five junior ministers were dropped.
The sources also said that four Ministers of State with independent charge were likely to be promoted to the cabinet.
He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also utterly failed to address the issues of governance and delivery.
The Prime Minister, who had reviewed the performance of various ministries indicating a reshuffle earlier on June 30, last expanded his Cabinet in November 2014.
In a bid to reshuffle the cabinet, the BJP led NDA government has dropped six ministers of states and introduced 19 new faces. Those who resigned from the Cabinet include Minister of State for Water Resources Sanwar Lal Jat, Minister of State River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Mohanbhai Kalyanjibhai Kundariya, Minister of State for Panchayati Raj Nihal Chand, Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Mansukhbhai Dhanjibhai Vasavam, Minister of State for Human Resource Development Ram Shankar Katheria.
In a solemn function at Rashtrapati Bhavan, others who joined his ministry as Ministers of State included Faggan Singh Khulaste, Vijay Goel, M.J. Akbar, S.S. Ahluwalia and Ramdas Athavale.
The swearing-in of Shahjahanpur MP Krishna Raj is also significant ahead of the UP polls as the Scheduled Caste community forms a sizable chunk of the electorate. “Modi ji appears to be completely oblivious to the gloom in trade and business.to successive contractors in core sector industry, to falling exports for now 17 months, crisis in the banking sector and a devaluing rupee”, he added.
The inducted ministers, as revealed by the sources, were assessed on the basis of the value they would bring to the council of ministers.
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There are seven ministers of state from Uttar Pradesh – Gen (Retd) V.K. Singh (External Affairs), Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi (Minority Affairs), Mahesh Sharma (Tourism), Sanjeev Balyan (Agriculture), Niranjan Jyoti (Food Processing Industry), Manoj Sinha (Railways) and Santosh Gangwar (Textiles).
