After the expansion of the union cabinet, Bihar Congress leader Kirti Azad criticized the cabinet expansion. "The engine was bad, but the coaches were replaced," said Kirti Azad, targeting Modi.
As many as 43 leaders took oath on Wednesday in the first Union Cabinet reshuffle and expansion after Prime Minister Modi returned to power for a second term in May 2019.
The swearing-in ceremony, which took place at Rashtrapati Bhavan amid COVID-19 protocols, came days ahead of the monsoon session of parliament.
Some of the key figures inducted into the Union cabinet include Jyotiraditya Scindia, Bhupender Yadav, Sarbananda Sonowal and Pashupati Kumar Paras. Seven women MPs took oath as union ministers in the expanded council of ministers.
They include Anupriya Patel, Shobha Karandlaje, Darshana Vikram Jardosh, Meenakshi Lekhi, Annapurna Devi, Pratima Bhoumik and Bharati Pravin Pawar.Meanwhile, seven Ministers of State (MoS) have been promoted as Union Cabinet Ministers. These include G Kishan Reddy, Kiren Rijiju, Anurag Singh Thakur, Hardeep Singh Puri, Raj Kumar Singh, Parshottam Rupala and Mansukh Mandaviya.
12 Union Ministers including Ravi Shankar Prasad, Dr Harsh Vardhan, Prakash Javadekar and D.V. Sadananda Gowda have resigned from their posts of Council of Ministers. Among 12 ministers who resigned include Thaawarchand Gehlot, Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank', Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Babul Supriyo, Dhotre Sanjay Shamrao, Rattan Lal Kataria, Pratap Chandra Sarangi and Sushri Debasree Chaudhuri.