As Prime Minister Narendra Modi gears up to navigate coalition politics, he has stayed close to the script of Modi 2.0 by keeping his top four ministers unchanged. The cabinet under NDA 3.0 retains Rajnath Singh as Defence Minister, Amit Shah as Home Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman as finance minister and S. Jaishankar as Minister of External Affairs.
NDA 3.0 Cabinet portfolio allocation: Highlights
Retaining the big four is a clear indication that the Modi-led government will continue with its brand of reforms, politics and economics. In addition to the big four, appointment of a strong political minister, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, an old horse of the BJP, a four-time Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, he won his constituency Vidisha by over 8 lakh votes - the second highest victory margin as minister of agriculture and rural development is a strong reinforcement of the government’s commitment to work with the farmers and spur growth in the agriculture sector. The agriculture sector is projected to see a growth of 1.8 per cent in the FY 24, a seven year low. Modi 2.0 has had several run-ins with the farmers, in fact rural distress, crunched incomes and pain in the farm sector have been cited as some of the key reasons for the loss of seats for the BJP in the Hindi heartland, Uttar Pradesh.
Chauhan has been credited for scripting a turnaround in the agriculture sector in Madhya Pradesh, the state that featured among the BIMARU states, was steered towards growth primarily through Chauhan’s policies in the agriculture sector.
Walking the tight rope of coalition politics, plum ministry of heavy industries and steel has been given to HD Kumaraswamy of Janta Dal Secular, son of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, he first became the Chief Minister of Karnataka in 2006 when he ran a coalition government with the BJP, he also led the government in 2018 when he formed a government in a coalition with the Congress.
The other coalition minister, Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu of the TDP is among the two TDP leaders who have been given ministerial berths but Naidu is the only one to have been given a cabinet position. He has been appointed as Minister of Civil Aviation. He is the youngest in the council of ministers, his father had served as Union Minister during 1996-98. Chirag Paswan, the young scion from Bihar from the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) which has won five Lok Sabha seats has been given the Ministry of Food Processing. Jitin Ran Manjhi (HAM) of the Hindustani Awam Morcha has been an MLA since 1980, a Dalit leader who was Chief Minister of Bihar during 2014-15. Rajiv Ranjan Singh, popularly known as Lalan Singh, a Bhumihar leader from the JDU has been among Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s closest aides for years, he has played a key role in stitching the JDU-RJD alliance in 2022.
Overarchingly, the NDA 3.0 cabinet, is a deft mix of political heavy weights from the BJP and its alliance partners. The BJP has kept its core close and has been strategic in incorporating constituencies they hope to consolidate going forward. The expectation was that a weakened BJP would translate into heavy-weight bargaining by the alliance partners but the cabinet mix seems to demonstrate that the BJP has played its cards well and the alliance partners have been responsible in bargaining for power.
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