Modi 3.0: With leaders from NDA allies sworn in, all eyes on portfolio allotment

While several deliberations on TDP’s wishlist for portfolios were doing the rounds, union cabinet minister Rammohan Naidu told DH that key interest areas remain IT, Shipping, Water Resources and Urban Development portfolios.

New Delhi: Leaders from NDA allies including former Karnataka CM and JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy, HAM’s Jitan Ram Manjhi, JD(U)'s Rajeev Ranjan or Lalan Singh, and LJP leader Chirag Paswan besides TDP’s Rammohan Naidu, will be part of the new Modi Cabinet. In all, as many as 10 ministers of the NDA alliance were sworn in as part of the Council of ministers, including four in the Cabinet.

Apart from those accorded Cabinet positions, RJD’s Jayant Chaudhary will be a minister of state with independent charge. Prataprao Jadhav from Shiv Sena, Dr Chandrasekhar Pemmasini from TDP, JD(U)’s Ram Nath Thakur and AJSU’s Sudesh Mahato are among those that will be part of the Council of ministers as ministers of state. Former ministers Ramdas Athwale and Anupriya Patel, too, took oath as ministers of state.

This term, as many as 11 alliance ministers took oath, an increase from the four that took oath in 2019 and five in 2014.

While several deliberations on what the TDP’s wishlist for portfolios were doing the rounds, union cabinet minister Rammohan Naidu told DH that key interest areas remain IT, Shipping, Water Resources and Urban Development portfolios. He said that these were important for the growth story of Andhra Pradesh, apart from an attractive financial package.

For the TDP, the water resources portfolio is key for the Polavaram irrigation project while urban development is key for the development of the new capital, Amaravati.

Within the JD(U), some of the ministries in demand are agriculture, rural development and railways. The BJP is not keen on giving up six key ministries, including Home, Finance, Defence, Railways, Law and Information Technology.

While the NDA has 290 seats in the Parliament, the BJP failed to touch the majority mark of 272 seats in the Lok Sabha; the TDP with 17 seats and the JDU with 12 seats have helped the BJP reach the numbers.