In a harsh criticism following the announcement of Modi’s new government 3.0 cabinet, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Atishi expressed concern over the treatment of coalition partners and said they will be considered “second-class citizens.” ” in government.
“The portfolio allocation shows that @narendramodi has no intention of respecting his coalition partners. Both @Jduonline and @JaiTDP should be prepared to be treated as second class citizens in this government,” Atishi wrote in a post on the social networks in X.
The new council of ministers is made up of 30 Cabinet ministers, 36 Ministers of State (MoS) and five independent MoS. Among them, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has been given to Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu, who is also the youngest serving minister in the Modi government 3.0 cabinet, ANI reported.
A close aide of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Munger’s JD(U) MP-elect Lalan Singh was given the Union Panchayati Raj ministry. Apart from this, Jitan Ram Manjhi has been given the MSME ministry (Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) under the NDA government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ANI reported.
HD Kumaraswamy, two-time chief minister of Karnataka and state president of Janata Dal (Secular), is given the Heavy Industries ministry. Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) president Chirag Paswan has been appointed Minister for Food Processing Industries.
The council of ministers is a mix of youth and experience with senior BJP leaders including Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar taking oath. Several young leaders of the BJP and its allies, including first-time MPs, also made it to the council of ministers. Actor-turned-politician Suresh Gopi, BJP’s first MP from Kerala, and Harsh Malhotra, who won the Lok Sabha polls in east Delhi, are among the first-time MPs in the union cabinet.
Narendra Modi was sworn in as Prime Minister for his third consecutive term in an impressive ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday afternoon, in which 71 MPs from the BJP and its allies joined the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by game.
(With contributions from ANI)