Besides inducting nine new ministers on Sunday as part of a Cabinet reshuffle, the Narendra Modi government also relieved several ministers of their portfolios, dropped a few of them entirely and reallocated portfolios to others.

Among them, Nirmala Sitharaman, Suresh Prabhu, Uma Bharti, Bandaru Dattatreya, Piyush Goyal and Vijay Goel are some of the names that stand out.

Ministers with new positions:

  • Suresh Prabhu on Sunday resigned as the railway minister and was, instead, allocated the Commerce Ministry. He had offered to resign following a spate of train derailments in August. On Sunday, he thanked the “rail family” and said he would always “cherish the memories”. Piyush Goyal, who was the power minister, now holds the railways portfolio.
  • Nirmala Sitharaman resigned as the minister of state for commerce and industry (independent charge) on Friday. She was appointed the defence minister on Sunday. Suresh Prabhu took charge of her former role.
  • Uma Bharti was the water resources and Ganga rejuvenation minister, but now has the drinking water and sanitation portfolio. Although she skipped the swearing-in ceremony, she said she was not angry with the government. Nitin Gadkari took additional charge of the Water Resources Ministry.
  • Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who was the minister of state for parliamentary affairs, was elevated to the Cabinet rank and will now head the ministry. Vijay Goel has charge of his former role.
  • Piyush Goyal, the former power minister, has been shifted to the Railway Ministry. Raj Kumar Singh – a new face in the Cabinet – will take independent charge of the Power Ministry.
  • Vijay Goel was the minister for sports and youth affairs, but is now a minister of state in two departments – the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. Newly-inducted Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore has been given independent charge of the Sports Ministry. 
  • Narendra Singh Tomar has been given additional charge of the Ministry of Mines. He is also the minister of rural development and minister of panchayati raj.

Ministers who were dropped:

  • Sanjeev Balyan resigned as the minister of state for water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation on Friday.
  • Faggan Singh Kulaste resigned as the minister of state for health and family welfare, to be replaced by newly-inducted Ashwini Kumar Choubey.
  • Kalraj Mishra resigned as the minister of state for medium, small and micro enterprises on Friday.
  • Mahendra Nath Pandey resigned as the minister of state for human resource development. He has been replaced by Satya Pal Singh, another new figure in the Cabinet.
  • Rajiv Pratap Rudy had resigned as the minister of state for skill development. Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has been given additional charge of Rudy’s former role.
  • Arjun Ram Meghwal was the minister of state for finance, but was replaced with Shiv Pratap Shukla on Sunday.
  • Bandaru Dattatreya resigned from his post as the labour minister on Friday. Santosh Kumar Gangwar is now the minister of state with independent charge of the Labour Ministry.