Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who took oath for a third straight term as the Prime Minister of India along with 71 ministerial colleagues, allocated the much-awaited portfolios to the Union ministers on Monday.
The suspense over portfolio allocation finally ended after an 18-hour wait for 30 cabinet ministers in the Narendra Modi government. The ministers and their teams remained glued to television screens and websites, eagerly awaiting the announcement from Rashtrapati Bhavan.
However, the wait finally ended when they arrived at Lok Kalyan Marg for the new government’s inaugural Cabinet meeting. Sources told The Times Of India that each minister found an envelope waiting for them on their seats, inside of which were their assigned portfolios along with the names of the ministers of state assigned to their ministries.
The report said that the wait was longer this time than during Narendra Modi’s previous two terms when the President’s secretariat released the communique by afternoon.
Unlike in 2014, when many portfolios were leaked on the day of the swearing-in, this time the details were kept under wraps until the Cabinet meeting concluded. Consequently, the names of the appointed ministers began appearing on TV screens and websites only after 6:30 pm, following the end of the Cabinet meeting.
Government observers said this was perhaps the first time ministers were informed of their portfolios through written notes placed inside envelopes.
The report added that the complete list of portfolios was made public around 7:30 pm, when ministers of state, including those with independent charge, also learned about their assigned ministries.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took oath for a third straight term as the Prime Minister of India along with 71 ministerial colleagues. The next day, he allocated the much-awaited portfolios to the Union ministers.
Key National Democratic Alliance (NDA) allies, including JDU, TDP, Shiv Sena, LJP, and others, secured ministerial positions in the Modi 3.0 Cabinet. Notably, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) are vital for the BJP-led NDA government‘s stability, with TDP holding 16 MPs and JD(U) having 12 MPs in the Lok Sabha.
