Modi expands cabinet, inducts 21 new faces

Twenty-one new faces were inducted in the Narendra Modi government's first cabinet expansion on Sunday.

Four new cabinet ministers and 17 ministers of state, three with independent charge, took oath at the Durbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan here Sunday afternoon.

Those who were sworn-in as cabinet ministers were former Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar, Shiv Sena's Suresh Prabhu, senior BJP leader Jagat Prakash Nadda and former Congressman Birender Singh.

BJP MPs Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Mahesh Sharma and Bandaru Dattatreya would be ministers of state with independent charge.

Those who took oath as ministers of state were Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Ram Kripal Yadav, Haribhai Parthibhai Choudhary, Sanwar Lal Jat, Mohanbhai Kalyanjibhai Kundariya, Giriraj Singh, Hansraj Ahir, Ram Shankar Katheria, TDP's Y.S. Chowdary, Jayant Sinha, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Babul Supriyo, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti and Vijay Sampla.

Besides Modi, those who attended the swearing-in ceremony included Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, senior BJP leader L.K. Advani, BJP president Amit Shah, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu and Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi.

-IANS