Cabinet reshuffle: Kiren Rijiju is new law minister, Jyotiraditya Scindia gets aviation ministry

10.41 pm: Kiren Rijiju, who was elevated as Cabinet Minister, will be the new law minister.

10.38 pm: Nitin Gadkari will remain as the Minister of Road Transport and Highways.

10.33 pm: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in charge of:

• Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions  
• Department of Atomic Energy
• Department of Space 
• All important policy issues  
• All other portfolios not allocated to any minister  

10.31 pm: Pashupati Kumar Paras, the brother of former Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan, gets the Ministry of Food Processing Industries.

10.25 pm: Anurag Thakur is entrusted with two portfolios – Information and Broadcasting and Sports Ministry.

10.19 pm: Rajya Sabha MP Dharmendra Pradhan has been shunted out of the petroleum ministry to the education portfolio. Piyush Goyal will handle the textile ministry, reports NDTV.

10.13 pm: Hardeep Singh Puri who held the Urban Development ministry, continues to assume the portfolio. Meanwhile, he has also been given the petroleum ministry, reports NDTV.

10.04 pm: Ashwini Vaishnaw to handle railways and information and technology ministry, reports NDTV.

10.02 pm: Jyotiraditya Scindia gets civil aviation portfolio, while Mansukh Mandaviya has been appointed the new Union health minister, reports NDTV.

9.56 pm: Newly-inducted Cabinet minister Jyotiraditya Scindia expresses gratitude to senior leaders of the BJP for his inclusion, ANI reports.

“I will try to keep intact the belief that they have shown in me,” says Scindia.

9.53 pm: Anurag Thakur thanks Prime Minister Narendra Modi for promoting him to the rank of a Cabinet minister.

9.44 pm: A year ahead of Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, the Centre added seven ministers from the state into the Cabinet, reports PTI.

7.49 pm: Among the 43 ministers inducted into the Union Cabinet, 15 will be given full ministries while 28 will become ministers of state, reports ANI.

7.29 pm: Coochbehar BJP MP Nisith Pramanik takes oath. Pramanik defected from the Trinamool Congress ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

7.27 pm: BJP’s Tamil Nadu state unit chief L Murugan takes oath as Cabinet minister.

7.26 pm: BJP MP from West Bengal’s Alipurduar constituency John Barla takes oath. A first-time MP, he had recently demanded a separate Union Territory carved out of north Bengal.

7.23 pm: Surendranagar MP and BJP leader Mahendra Munjapara takes oath. He is a member of the parliamentary standing committee for health and family welfare.

7.20 pm: BJP MP from West Bengal’s Bangaon constituency Shantanu Thakur takes oath. He is a prominent leader of the Matua religious sect, which has considerable influence in West Bengal and neighbouring states.

7.18 pm: First-time BJP MP from Odisha’s Mayurbhanj seat Bisheshwar Tudu takes oath as Cabinet minister.

7.16 pm: BJP MP from Maharashtra’s Dindori, Bharati Pravin Pawar, takes oath. She was conferred with the Best Woman Parliamentarian in December 2019.

7.13 pm: BJP MP from Inner Manipur Lok Sabha constituency Rajkumar Ranjan Singh. An academician, he joined the BJP in 2013, after his retirement from the Manipur University.

7.11 pm: BJP Rajya Sabha MP from Maharashtra Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad takes oath.

7.09 pm: First-time MP from West Bengal’s Bankura Subhas Sarkar takes oath as Cabinet minister.

7.08 pm: BJP MP from Tripura West Pratima Bhoumik takes oath. She has served as a minister in the Biplab Deb Cabinet in Tripura also.

7.06 pm: BJP MP Kapil Moreshwar Patil takes oath. He was earlier a Nationalist Congress party leader.

7.03 pm: Bhagawanth Khuba, BJP MP from Karnataka’s Bidar takes oath as Cabinet minister.

7.02 pm: BJP MP from Kheda in Gujarat Devusinh Chauhan takes oath.

6.58 pm: BJP Rajya Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh BL Varma takes oath.

6.56 pm: BJP MP from Uttarakhand’s Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar Lok Sabha constituency Ajay Bhatt takes oath. He is also the party’s state chief in Uttarakhand.

6.54 pm: BJP MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Mohanlalganj Lok Sabha constituency takes oath. He is the party’s Scheduled Caste wing chief in Uttar Pradesh.

6.53 pm: Abbaiah Narayanaswamy, BJP’s Lok Sabha MP from Chitradurga in Karnataka, takes oath as Cabinet minister.

6.50 pm: Annapurna Devi, BJP MP from Jharkhand’s Koderma, takes oath.

6.49 pm: BJP MP from New Delhi Lok Sabha constituency Meenakshi Lekhi takes oath. Lekhi is the chairperson of parliamentary committee on public undertakings.

6.47 pm: Darshana Jardosh, a three-time time Lok Sabha MP from Gujarat’s Surat for BJP, takes oath.

6.45 pm: BJP Lok Sabha member from Jalaun constituency Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma takes oath.

6.42 pm: BJP Lok Sabha MP Shobha Karandlaje takes oath as Cabinet minister. She is the vice president of BJP’s Karnataka unit.

6.40 pm: BJP Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka Rajeev Chandrsekhar takes oath as Cabinet minister.

6.38 pm: BJP MP from Agra SP Singh Baghel takes oath. Baghel was previously a Samajwadi party leader.

6.36 pm: Anupriya Patel, Apna Dal (Sonelal) MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Mirzapur, takes oath. Patel was a minister of state for health and family welfare between 2016 and 2019.

6.34 pm: BJP MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Maharajganj Pankaj Choudhary takes oath as Cabinet minister.

6.32 pm: Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur takes oath. He is BJP’s MP from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh.

6.29: Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy takes oath.

6.28 pm: BJP Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat Parshottam Rupala takes oath.

6.26 pm: BJP Rajya Sabha MP Bhupender Yadav takes oath as Cabinet minister. He is the party’s national general secretary.

6.25 pm: BJP Lok Sabha MP from Palitana seat Mansukh Mandaviya promoted as full Cabinet minister. He was previously the minister of state for ports, shipping and waterways.

6.23 pm: BJP leader Hardeep Singh Puri takes oath. He previously held the civil aviation and housing and urban affairs ministries.

6.22 pm: BJP MP from Bihar’s Arrah Raj Kumar Singh takes oath as Cabinet minister.

6.19 pm: BJP Lok Sabha MP Kiren Rijiju takes oath. He previously held the post of Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and Minister of State in the Ministry of Minority Affairs. Now, he has been promoted as a full Cabinet minister.

6.16 pm: Lok Janshakti Party chief Pashupati Kumar Paras takes oath as Cabinet minister. Paras, the brother of former Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan, is engaged in an inner-party feud with his nephew Chirag Paswan.

6.15 pm: BJP Rajya Sabha member Ashwini Vaishnaw inducted into the Union Cabinet.

6.14 pm: Janata Dal (United) Rajya Sabha member Ramchandra Prasad Singh takes oath.

6.12 pm: Guna MP Jyotiraditya Scindia takes oath as Cabinet minister. Scindia, a former Congress leader, had joined BJP in 2020. His defection led to the fall of Congress government in Madhya Pradesh.

6.11 pm: BJP MP from Tikamgarh in Madhya Pradesh, Virendra Kumar, takes oath as Cabinet minister.

6.07 pm: Former Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal takes oath as Cabinet minister.

6.05 pm: Narayan Rane takes oath as Cabinet minister. Rane, a former Shiv Sena and Congress leader, joined the BJP in 2019 and is currently a Rajya Sabha member.

6.02 pm: President Ram Nath Kovind arrives at Durbar Hall in Rashtrapati Bhavan where the oath taking ceremony will take place.

5.59 pm: Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives at Rashtrapati Bhavan for oath taking ceremony of 43 ministers.

5.48 pm: Here’s the list of all ministers who have resigned from the Union Cabinet:

5.36 pm: As many as 12 Union ministers, including Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar resign from Cabinet ahead of a reshuffle, says President Ram Nath Kovind’s secretariat.

5 pm: Lok Janshakti Party leader Chirag Paswan opposes inclusion of his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras in Modi’s new Cabinet, reports NDTV.

“Pashupati Kumar Paras has already been expelled from the Lok Janshakti Party for rebellion and cheating the top leadership,” says Paswan. “The party registers its strong reservation against his inclusion in the Central team of ministers.”

4.55 pm: Congress MP Mallikarjun Kharge tells ANI that the Cabinet reshuffle is being done to distract citizens.

“Several Dalits, backward caste members are being made ministers,” he adds. “They are doing it from the point of polls. They are not doing this for welfare of communities but because of their compulsion.”

4.47 pm: Meanwhile, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh says Harsh Vardhan was made a scapegoat for “monumental failures” at the highest level.

His colleague P Chidambaram says Vardhan’s resignation is Modi government’s acceptance that it has “utterly failed” to tackle the coronavirus crisis. Reports are saying that Minister of State for Health Ashwini Chaube has also resigned, but there is no official confirmation yet.

4.42 pm: Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala says Prime Minister Narendra Modi should be sacked ahead of the Cabinet rejig, reports India Today.

“The Cabinet rejig is an eyewash,” he adds. “This is a defectors’ adjustment exercise.”

4.39 pm: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee says removal of Babul Supriyo from the Council of Ministers shows that “they [the BJP government] have also lost it even before the arrival of their end” in 2024, reports PTI.

4.35 pm: All India Institute Of Medical Science chief Randeep Guleria dismisses speculation that he is in line to be the country’s next health minister, reports News18.

Earlier in the day, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan resigned from his post. This came as the Modi government is facing severe criticism of its handling of the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

4.22 pm: A total of 43 leaders are expected to take oath as ministers in the Union Cabinet, reports ANI.

4.06 pm: Pratap Chandra Sarangi quits as Minister of State of animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries and micro, small and medium enterprises, reports Prasar Bharati.

3.37 pm: Union Minister of State for Environment Babul Supriyo has resigned from his post, the BJP leader has confirmed in a Facebook post.

3 pm: Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has resigned ahead of the Cabinet reshuffle, reports ANI. However, there has been no official confirmation on this.

2.55 pm: A meeting with politicians at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official residence has concluded, reports ANI. Several leaders from different political parties, including the Bharatiya Janata Party, met the prime minister.

2.50 pm: Union Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar has resigned from his position ahead of the re-arrangement in the Cabinet, reports DD News.

2.45 pm: Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal resigns ahead of Cabinet reshuffle, reports DD News.

2.40 pm: A reshuffle of posts in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet will take place at 6 pm on Wednesday, reports DD News. This is the first time such an exercise will take place since Modi assumed office for a second term in May 2019.

Currently, there are several positions vacant in the Cabinet. Some of them were left empty after the death of Lok Janshakti Party founder Ramvilas Paswan and the exit of the Shiv Sena and Shiromani Akali Dal from the National Democratic Alliance. Four Union ministers hold additional charges of five ministries.

The Centre had on Tuesday created a new portfolio called the Ministry of Cooperation. The reshuffle on Wednesday is likely to see appointments to this new ministry.

2.30 pm: On Tuesday, former Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Thawarchand Gehlot was appointed the governor of Karnataka. Seven others were appointed as governors of different areas in a reshuffle.

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Union minister Thawarchand Gehlot appointed Karnataka governor in reshuffle