Five Union ministers from the Bharatiya Janata Party’s allies in the National Democratic Alliance have been made “special invitees” in the NITI Aayog, which was reconstituted on Tuesday.

They are HD Kumaraswamy from the Janata Dal (Secular), Jitan Ram Manjhi from the Hindustani Awam Morcha, Rajiv Ranjan Singh from the Janata Dal (United), KR Naidu from the Telugu Desam Party and Chirag Paswan from the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will remain the chairperson of the government-run public policy think tank. Economist Suman K Bery will continue as its vice-chairperson.

Scientist VK Saraswat, agricultural economist Ramesh Chand, paediatrician VK Paul and macro-economist Arvind Virmani will continue as its full-time members.

The organisation was first constituted in 2015 to replace the 65-year-old Planning Commission.

Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan has replaced Narendra Singh Tomar as an ex-officio member. The other ex-officio members include Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Health Minister JP Nadda, Social Justice Minister Virendra Kumar, Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram, Women and Child Development Minister Annapurna Devi and Statistics Minister Rao Inderjit Singh are the other special invitees.

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw are no longer included in the list of special invitees.