Cabinet reshuffle: Who is in?

With swearing-in ceremony over, the Modi Cabinet has got nine new ministers and four others have been given Cabinet berth. Piyush Goyal, Nirmala Sitharaman, Dharmendra Pradhan and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi have been given Cabinet rank.

The new faces in the Cabinet are:

Dharmendra Pradhan

Dharmendra Pradhan is new skill development minister. Pradhan, who had the independent charge of the oil and petroleum ministry, will now be the new skill development minister, replacing Rajiv Pratap Rudy.

Piyush Goyal

Piyush Goyal is set to be new railway minister, replacing Suresh Prabhu, after the swearing-in ceremony.

Nirmala Sitharaman

Nirmala Sitharaman takes oath as Cabinet minister. She is the new defence minister. Sitharaman. who earlier held the independent charge of the commerce and industry ministry, has become the second independent woman defence minister of India.

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi is the new Minister of Minority Affairs. Naqvi is an articulate face and has never made anything controversial statements. Naqvi elevation as a full-fledged member of the Narendra Modi Cabinet could be a message to the Muslims, who have variously felt left out of the new power equation in Indian politics.

Shiv Pratap Shukla

Rajya Sabha MP Shiv Pratap Shukla is the first one to take oath as Minister of State. Shukla has been a minister in BJP governments in Uttar Pradesh.

Ashwini Kumar Choubey

Ashwini Kumar Choubey is the new MoS in the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. Choubey, who has been a health minister under Nitish Kumar government in the past, is a Brahmin strongman from Bihar. He is currently a Lok Sabha MP from Buxar.

Veerendra Kumar

BJP's Veerendra Kumar is a six-term MP from Tikamgarh and an important Dalit face of the BJP.

RK Singh

RK Singh, the former home secretary, will now hold the independent charge of the power ministry, which was earlier handled by Piyush Goyal, who has got a promotion as the new railway minister. Singh is a first-term MP from Arah, Bihar. A former Home Secretary, Singh is popular for once arresting LK Advani during the 1990 Rath Yatra.

Anantkumar Hegde

Anantkumar Hegde, the Lok Sabha MP from Uttar Kannada, was one of the youngest MPs in the 11th Lok Sabha in 1996. Hegde is a five-term MP, who became a giantkiller by defeating Margaret Alva.

Hardeep Puri

A former envoy to the United Nations, Hardeep Puri was one of the top diplomats of India. A 1974-batch IFS officer, he is reported to be made a MoS defence or commerce.

Gajendra Singh Shekhawat

Shekhawat is a first-term MP from Jodhpur. A popular figure on social media, he began his career as a farmer leader, affiliated to the RSS.

Satyapal Singh

A former IPS officer, Singh was the Mumbai Police commissioner before taking the political plunge in 2014.

KJ Alphons

KJ Alphons gets independent charge of Tourism and MoS for Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. Alphons is a former IAS officer of the 1979 batch, Kerala cadre. He is also a practicing advocate. Alphons became famous as Delhi's "Demolition Man" when he was the commissioner of the Delhi Development Authority, having cleared DDA areas of encroachment removing around 15,000 illegal buildings.

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