Agri Ministry: One dropped, one shunted, 3 new faces

The Union Cabinet expansion in Tuesday took the heaviest toll on the Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Ministry with two of its junior ministers making way for the new faces. While Mohan Bhai Kundariya has been dropped another one Sanjiv Baliyan has been shunted out from the Ministry.

The three new faces who have joined the Ministry as Radha Mohan’s juniors include S S Ahulwalia, Parshottam Rupala and Sudarshan Bhagat. While Ahulwalia will have additional charge of Parliamentary Affairs, Rupala would also look after the Ministry of Panchayati Raj.

Dr Sanjeev Kumar Balyan has been shunted to the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation as perhaps Uma Bharati is not performing the way she was expected to.

With NDA govt emphasis on agriculture and rural development at its focus the govt is taking no chance and is decorating the ministry with maximum number of ministers, said an insider. It has also increased the budget for farm production in an unprecedented way, reminded the source.

Portfolios of the Union Council of Ministers

Cabinet Ministers

1. Rajnath Singh – Home Affairs
2. Sushma Swaraj – External Affairs
3. Arun Jaitley – Finance & Corporate Affairs
4. M Venkaiah Naidu – Urban Development Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation, Information & Broadcasting
5. Nitin Jairam Gadkari – Road Transport and Highways & Shipping
6. Manohar Parrikar – Defence
7. Suresh Prabhu – Railways
8. D V Sadananda Gowda – Statistics & Programme Implementation
9. Uma Bharati – Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation
10. Najma A Heptulla – Minority Affairs
11. Ramvilas Paswan – Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution
12. Kalraj Mishra – Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises
13. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi – Women & Child Development
14. Ananth Kumar – Chemicals & Fertilizers, Parliamentary Affairs
15. Ravi Shankar Prasad – Law & Justice, Electronics & Information Technology
16. Jagat Prakash Nadda – Health & Family Welfare
17. Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati – Civil Aviation
18. Anant Geete – Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises
19. Harsimrat Kaur Badal – Food Processing Industries
20. Narendra Singh Tomar – Rural Development, Panchayati Raj Drinking Water & Sanitation
21. Chaudhary Birender Singh – Steel
22. Jual Oram – Tribal Affairs
23. Radha Mohan Singh – Agriculture & Farmers Welfare
24. Thaawar Chand Gehlot – Social Justice and Empowerment
25. Smriti Zubin Irani – Textiles
26. Harsh Vardhan – Science & Technology, Earth Sciences
27. Prakash Javadekar – Human Resource Development

Ministers of State

28. Rao Inderjit Singh – Planning (Independent Charge) Urban Development Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation
29. Bandaru Dattatreya – Labour & Employment (Independent Charge)
30. Rajiv Pratap Rudy – Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (Independent Charge)
31. Vijay Goel – Youth Affairs and Sports (Independent Charge), Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation
32. Shripad Yesso Naik – AAYUSH (Independent Charge)
33. Dharmendra Pradhan – Petroleum and Natural Gas (Independent Charge)
34. Piyush Goyal – Power (Independent Charge) Coal (Independent Charge) New and Renewable Energy (Independent Charge) Mines (Independent Charge)
35. Jitendra Singh – Development of North Eastern Region (Independent Charge), Prime Minister’s Office, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Space
36. Nirmala Sitharaman – Commerce and Industry (Independent Charge)
37. Mahesh Sharma – Culture (Independent Charge), Tourism (Independent Charge)
38. Manoj Sinha – Communications (Independent Charge), Railways
39. Anil Madhav Dave – Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Independent Charge)
40. VK Singh – External Affairs
41. Santosh Kumar Gangwar – Finance
42. Faggan Singh Kulaste – Health & Family Welfare
43. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi – Minority Affairs, Parliamentary Affairs
44. SS Ahluwalia – Agriculture & Farmer Welfare, Parliamentary Affairs
45. Ramdas Athawale – Social Justice & Empowerment
46. Ram Kripal Yadav – Rural Development
47. Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary – Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises
48. Giriraj Singh – Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises
49. Hansraj Gangaram Ahir – Home Affairs
50. GM Siddeshwara – Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises
51. Ramesh Chandappa Jigajinagi – Drinking Water & Sanitation
52. Rajen Gohain – Railways
53. Parshottam Rupala – Agriculture & Farmer Welfare, Panchayati Raj
54. MJ Akbar – External Affairs
55. Upendra Kushwaha – Human Resources Development
56. Radhakrishnan P – Road Transport & Highways Shipping
57. Kiren Rijiju – Home Affairs
58. Krishan Pal – Social Justice & Empowerment
59. Jasvantsinh Sumanbhai Bhabhor – Tribal Affairs
60. Dr Sanjeev Kumar Balyan – Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation
61. Vishnu Deo Sai – Steel
62. Sudarshan Bhagat – Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
63. YS Chowdary – Science & Technology, Earth Science
64. Jayant Sinha – Civil Aviation
65. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore – Information & Broadcasting
66. Babul Supriyo – Urban Development, Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation
67. Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti – Food Processing Industries
68. Vijay Sampla – Social Justice & Empowerment
69. Arjun Ram Meghwal – Finance, Corporate Affairs
70. Dr Mahendra Nath Pandey – Human Resource Development
71. Ajay Tamta – Textiles
72. Krishna Raj – Women & Child Development
73. Mansukh L Mandaviya – Road Transport & Highways, Shipping, Chemicals & Fertilisers