In a major Cabinet reshuffle of the Narendra Modi government, as many as 43 leaders including two from Odisha were inducted as ministers in the PM's team on Wednesday (July 7).
Rajya Sabha member and former Odisha cadre IAS officer Ashwini Vaishnaw took oath as a Cabinet Minister while Mayurbhanj MP Bishweswar Tudu was sworn in as Minister of State in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s team after the union cabinet reshuffle.
Ashwini Vaishnaw is a BJP Rajya Sabha member from Odisha since June 2019. Prior to that, he had served as the personal secretary to the PMO during Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s tenure as Prime Minister in the year 2000. Bishweshwar Tudu is a member of the Lok Sabha from Mayurbhanj in Odisha.
As many as 15 Cabinet ministers, which included some new faces, were sworn-in during the oath taking ceremony today. Senior leaders including former Maharashtra CM Narayan Rane, former Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal, and BJP MP Jyotiraditya Scindia have been inducted as Cabinet ministers.
Anurag Thakur, G Kishan Reddy, Parshottam Rupala, Kiren Rijiju, Hardeep Singh Puri, Mansukh Mandaviya and RK Singh - all have been promoted to Cabinet rank.
Earlier in the day, as many as 12 Cabinet ministers including Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, IT and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar, Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar and Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal had resigned. Union Ministers Pratap Chandra Sarangi, Babul Supriyo, Sadananda Gowda, Debasree Chaudhuri, Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre, Ratan Lal Kataria and Raosaheb Danve had also stepped down ahead of the reshuffle.