Cabinet reshuffle: Andhra CM Naidu hopeful of new team helping state

Following a mega Union Cabinet reshuffle at the Rashtrapati Bhawan, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has congratulated the newly inducted ministers and said that he hopes the new team would help the state.

"Hopeful that the new team would help Andhra Pradesh state, which has been facing problems after the unfair and unscientific bifurcation," Naidu said.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet rejig saw the promotion of as many as four Ministers of State to the rank of Cabinet ministers.

Dharmendra Pradhan, the Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, took the oath as the Cabinet ministers at the ceremony held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Nirmala Sitharaman, serving as the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for the Ministry of Commerce and Industry as well as a Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs under the Ministry of Finance headed by Arun Jaitley, also took the oath.

Piyush Goyal, the Minister of State with Independent Charge for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy and Mines, was also sworn-in as the Cabinet minister.

Other ministers who were handed over bigger responsibilities are:

-Shiv Pratap Shukla

-Ashwini Kumar Choubey, who is a Lok Sabha MP from Buxar, Bihar

-Virendra Kumar, a Lok Sabha MP from Tikamgah, Madhya Pradesh

-Anant Kumar Hegde, a Lok Sabha MP from Uttara Kannada, Karnataka

-Raj Kumar Singh

-Hardeep Puri

-Gajendra Singh Shekhawat

-Satya Pal Singh

-Alphons Kannanthanam, a distinguished former IAS officer of the 1979 batch, Kerala cadre.