Prime Minister Narendra Modi expanded his Union Council of ministers at a ceremony in the Darbar Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhavan. President Pranab Mukherjee administered oath to the 19 new ministers of state as well as a cabinet rank oath to minister Prakash Javadekar. This was the second expansion of the NDA government led by PM Narendra Modi. Of the 19 new ministers, 17 are from the BJP, one each from Apna Dal and RPI.

The biggest surprise was removing Smriti Irani from the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and giving her the Textile portfolio. Environmental minister Prakash Javadekar has been elevated as the new HRD minister.

Five ministers dropped from the Union Council of Ministers. The five dropped from the Cabinet are Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers Nihal Chand Meghwal, MoS HRD Ram Shankar Katheria, MoS Water Resources Sanwar Lal Jat, MoS Tribal Affairs Manuskhbhai D. Vasva and MoS Agriculture M.K. Kundariya.

After the dropping of five ministers, the expansion took the total strength of the Council of Ministers to 78, four below the Constitutional bar of 82. The Council of Ministers can have a maximum of 15 per cent of the total strength of the Lok Sabha, which has 542 members. People with strong academic backgrounds have also been inducted in the Union Council of Ministers.

The Newly Included MoSs

Faggan Singh Kulste, Ramesh Jigjinagi, S S Ahluwalia, Vijay Goel, Rajen Gohain, Ramdas Athawale, Parshottam Rupala, Anil Madhav Dave, M J Akbar, Jaswant Sinh Bhabhor, Dr Mahendra Nath Pandey, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Ajay Tamta, Smt. Krishna Raj, Mansukh Mandaviya, Anupriya Patel, C R Chaudhary, P P Chaudhary, Dr Subhash Bhamre.