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Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on Thursday administered the oath of office and secrecy, followed by 57 leaders from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) who were also sworn in as cabinet ministers and ministers of state for the union.
However, there were quite a few names missing on the all-important list of the council of ministers. Former foreign affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, minister of state for sports Rajyawardhan Singh Rathore and ex-railway minister Suresh Prabhu were the prominent names excluded from Modi's team for the second term.
Sushma Swaraj's exclusion came as a big shock to many given her prolific track record as minister of external affairs.
Sure Prabhu was shifted to Commerce and Industry in the wake of a series of railway accidents.
Prabhu had taken moral responsibility for the Kalinga Utkal Express train's derailment near Khatauli in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar district.
He held the additional charge of Civil Aviation Ministry and took various measures to improve the passenger experience.
Prabhu also closely monitored the Modi government's flagship regional connectivity scheme (RCS) and has been credited with bringing many small towns on the aviation map.
As Commerce Minister, he successfully put a check on current account deficit but could not push exports.
A member of upper house Rajya Sabha, Prabhu was a minister in Vajpayee government too.
Trained as a chartered accountant, Prabhu had been the blue-eyed boy of late Shiv Sena Supremo Balasahab Thackeray and enjoyed the confidence of Vajpayee.
Not just Prabhu, but even his colleague Jayant Sinha in the Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan, which houses the Civil Aviation Ministry, did not find a place in the new cabinet.
After a successful professional career in global majors like McKinsey & Company, Sinha, son of former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha in the Vajpayee government, contested the 2014 general elections from Hazaribagh constituency of Jharkhand.
He won with a healthy margin and was sworn-in as MoS Finance in 2014. Later in his term, he was made the MoS Civil Aviation, where he was instrumental in implementing the RCS UDAN scheme.
He has also been credited to bring in the technology-enabled digital ecosystem for the aviation sector to make the overall air travel experience easier for millions of passengers.
This time around too, Sinha retained his Lok Sabha constituency seat of Hazaribagh in the general elections.
Besides, the high-profile, Minister of Communications (Independent Charge) and Minister of State (MoS) for Railways in the previous government, Manoj Sinha was also dropped.
(With inputs from IANS)
