Sushma Swaraj startled Modi when she said she would like to be defence minister. That set the PM thinking, says Rajeev Sharma.
The JD-U ministers, whose resignations were accepted, were state Building Construction Minister Monazir Hasan, SC/ST Welfare and Social Welfare Minister Rameshwar Paswan and Rural Development Minister Baijnath Prasad Mahato and ministers of state (independent charge) -- Arjun Rai (Information and Public Relation), Vishwa Mohan Kumar (Minor Water Resource), Ajit Kumar (Transport), Manzar Alam (Minority Welfare) and Suchitra Sinha (Food and Consumers' Conservation).
Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and other ministers took charge of their respective offices on Thursday, a day after taking oath at a ceremony held in the Darbar Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
She hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and BJP president J P Nadda as her leaders.
Failure to deliver on governance, corruption allegations, preoccupation with Lok Sabha and gram panchayat polls and factionalism have weakened Siddaramaiah's government in Karnataka. This may well hand the BJP a chance to make a comeback in the state, says Raghu Krishnan.
Nine ministers of cabinet rank and four ministers of state were inducted at the swearing in ceremony at Raj Bhavan with Governor Vajubhai Vala administering the oath of office and secrecy.
Tuesday's exercise underlines Bharatiya Janata Party's attempts at wooing Dalits and OBCs, whose votes would be crucial to its fortunes in key states like UP and Gujarat.
'Scindia did not just come to a new party, it was an ideological shift for him. In the past one and a half years, Scindia never lost communication with RSS leaders in the state. He left no stone unturned to ensure his acceptability in the party'
Irani's deputy in the I&B ministry Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore has been given the charge of the key portfolio.
All 20 Nationalist Congress Party ministers in the Maharashtra cabinet on Friday submitted their resignations to the party leadership amid reports of a large-scale reshuffle both at the government and party level.
Mandaviya said this is the second phase of the Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package as the Central government had given Rs 15,000 crore earlier for setting up Covid-dedicated hospitals and health centres across the country.
An Indian-origin minister has been dropped from British Premier Gordon Brown's cabinet and replaced as under-secretary of state in the department for communities and local government by another parliamentarian of Asian descent. In a reshuffle, Gloucester MP Parmjit Dhanda, was dropped from the Council of Ministers while the prime minister's confidante Ugandan-born Baroness Shriti Vadera was promoted to the post of parliamentary secretary and Cabinet office minister.
A meeting of the Congress top brass is scheduled for Saturday evening amid talk that a decision on the removal of Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and shifting of beleaguered Law Minister Ashwani Kumar is on the cards.
Amid speculations that a leadership change may accompany the impending reshuffle of state cabinet, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Friday said not much should be read into the state Congress leaders meeting party chief Sonia Gandhi.
Rahul Gandhi battles the Congress's rising expectations. Sushil Kumar Shinde, the master player. Why N D Tiwari has terrified India's politicians. Mamata Banerjee's soft spot... All this and more in this week's Dilli Gupshup.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's opening remarks at the meeting of council of ministers in New Delhi
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday met President Pranab Mukherjee in the midst of a raging speculation over a reshuffle of the Union Cabinet, which now appears to be on the cards only late this month or early next month.
His decision to put off the week-long visit for Haj also comes amid speculation of an impending reshuffle in the Union Cabinet.
Here are all the sidelights from the swearing-in ceremony.
The combativeness reflects her insistence not to meekly acquiesce to what has been going on in Raisina Hill for years or decades, observes Kartikeya Tanna.
If General Asim Munir, Pakistan's new army chief, wants to help defuse the current polarised atmosphere and shepherd civilian politicians towards negotiations on an acceptable date for elections, he may need to distance himself from any perception of needless hostility to Imran Khan, explains Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RA&W, India's external intelligence agency.
The seven-member grouping has seen two changes -- S Jaipal Reddy replacing Murli Deora after taking over as the Oil Ministry, while Kamal Nath has given away to the new Road Transport and Highways Minister C P Joshi.
'Destabilising the Yediyurappa government is not a cakewalk.' 'If he is destabilised, then the BJP will have problems in Karnataka.'
The oaths of secrecy and office will be administered by President A P J Abdul Kalam at Rashtrapati Bhavan at noon
The loss in Bihar has forced a change in NDA's market positioning, says Shekhar Gupta.
Union Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, who has been elevated to Cabinet rank in Wednesday's reshuffle, had worked on many a party and governmental positions in the past. Khurshid, who is a Member of Parliament from Farrukhabad parliamentary constituency, had in the past served as junior minister of commerce and minister of state for eternal afairs during the 10th Lok Sabha (1991-96). Between 1996 and 2009,
The 13 month-old Karnataka coalition government of JD-S and Congress slumped into crisis following the resignation of their 11 MLAs from the membership of the state assembly on Saturday.
The impact of Shinzo Abe's towering personality is such that even in death, Abe remains a polarising figure, asserts Dr Rajaram Panda.
Even as the crisis widens in the Bharatiya Janata Party in Karnataka, the party faction headed by Bellary mining tycoons Reddy brothers -- consisting of state tourism minister G Janardhana Reddy and revenue minister G Karunakara Reddy -- has put forth a fresh list of demands in order to avert the calamity. The Reddy brothers want a major reshuffle in the Karnataka cabinet and are expected to place this demand before senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley, later on Thursday evening.
The appointment of new expenditure secretary comes a month-and-a-half ahead of the Budget for 2020-21 to be presented on February 1.
At the meeting attended by 33 parties, the prime minister said suggestions from public representatives, especially from the Opposition, are valuable as they make the discussion rich.
Rediff.com lists a few instances when BJP leaders and ministers shot their mouth off.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi who inducted 19 new ministers into his Cabinet on Tuesday has carried out major changes in the portfolios of his top ministers.
'Why do the English-speaking class feel they are the only ones who are efficient in work?' 'My own mother was from a village and she was more efficient than me. She used to handle crises better than me.' 'We will have to come out of our elite perception of governance.'
Navjot Sidhu has been given power and new and renewable energy sources, and his tourism and cultural affairs portfolio has been given to Charanjit Singh Channi.
Breaking a long tradition, the PMO has ensured that specific divisions in each ministry are allocated to junior ministers.
The reshuffle is aimed at speeding up the implementation of the government's ambitious programmes like the SmartCity project and focus on key sectors like Mines, Information Technology and Road Transport.
In a counter offensive after 13 MLAs resigned on Saturday dealing a blow to the 13-month-old government, a delegation of Congress leaders met Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar and submitted the petition seeking, under the anti-defection law, disqualification of the rebel legislators in line with the decision taken at a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party on Tuesday.
