Modi Inducts 21 New Ministers, Reshuffles Portfolios
In Mumbai, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray described Prabhu's joining the BJP as "unfortunate" but indicated that Anant Geete, party's representative in the Modi government, will continue for the time being.
Thackeray put a condition that his party will sit in opposition in Maharashtra if BJP takes support of the Nationalist Congress Party to prove its majority in the state assembly Nov 12.
The Sena at the last minute recalled Anil Desai, who it had nominated for induction in the union ministry. According to reports, Desai arrived in Delhi for the oath-taking ceremony but was ordered to return.
Parrikar, who is widely tipped to get the defence portfolio, was the first to be administered oath by President Pranab Mukherjee at the Durbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan and was followed by Nadda, who is known to be close to Modi and party chief Amit Shah.
Giriraj Singh, 61, who courted controversy with his comment that "those who oppose Narendra Modi should go to Pakistan" and was also booked for the hate speech, got a place as as minister of state.
Jayant Sinha, the IIT-Delhi and Harvard-educated MP from Hazaribagh in election-bound Jharkhand, is among the professionals inducted in the ministry as a balancing act to induction of state leaders with caste or community base.
The ministry expansion also signalled BJP's efforts to consolidate its gains in the states it had done well in the Lok Sabha elections and give representation to various dominant castes and communities to expand its social base in view of the assembly elections over the next few years.
Keeping in mind next year's elections in Bihar which are crucial for the BJP, the council has three new faces from the state - Rajiv Pratap Rudy (MoS independent charge), Ram Kirpal Yadav and Giriraj Singh (both MoS), all belonging to different and numerically significant communities. Union ministers Ram Vilas Paswan and Ravi Shankar Prasad are also from Bihar.
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