Our Correspondent / New Delhi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today inducted nine new faces in his ministry and elevated four ministers, including Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi (Minority Affairs), Piyush Goel (Power) and Nirmala Sitharaman (Commerce and Industries) to Cabinet rank.
The new ministers were sworn in by President Ram Nath Kovind at a glittering function at Rashtrapati Bhawan.
The new entrants to the Union Cabinet include Shiv Pratap Shukla, Rajya Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh; Ashwini Choubey, Lok Sabha MP from Bihar’s Buxar; Veerandra Kumar, Lok Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh’s Tikamgah.
The others were Raj Kumar Singh, Lok Sabha MP from Bihar’s Arrah; Anantkumar Hegde, Lok Sabha MP from Karnataka; Hardeep Singh Puri, a highly-decorated former IFS officer; Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Lok Sabha MP from Rajasthan’s Jodhpur; Satya Pal Singh, Lok Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat and Alphons Kannanthanam, a distinguished former IAS officer of the 1979 batch, Kerala cadre.
New Ministers include former IFS officer Hardeep Puri, former Mumbai Police chief Satyapal Singh and former IAS officer Alphons Kannanthanam. Lok Sabha MP’s from Madhya Pradesh Virendra Kumar, from Karnataka Anant Kumar Hegde, from Rajasthan Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, from Bihar Ashwini Kumar Choubey and Raj Kumar Singh. Rajya Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh Shiv Pratap Shukla also takes oath today. The portfolios of the Ministers will be announced later.