Jaitley is big player after Modi; Rajnath gets home, Sushma foreign

Arun Jaitley has turned out to be the most important person in the new government after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with three heavy portfolios of finance, defence and corporate affairs, it was announced Tuesday.

The Rashtrapati Bhavan released the portfolio allocation of 46 ministers, including 24 cabinet ministers, of the government sworn in Monday evening. Sushma Swaraj is the new foreign minister and Rajnath Singh will head the home ministry.

Modi has kept with him, like some of his predecessors, the portfolios of personnel, public grievances and pensions as well as the departments of atomic energy and space besides any other department not allocated to any minister.

He will, as the presidential communique states, be in charge of "all important policy issues".

Rajnath Singh, the BJP president who is likely to hand over the party baton to someone else, gets the important portfolio of home (interior) and Sushma Swaraj gets both external affairs and overseas Indian affairs.

M. Venkaiah Naidu, a former BJP president, also gets a lot of responsibility with urban development, housing and urban poverty alleviation as well as parliamentary affairs.

Nitin Gadkari, another former BJP president, takes charge of road transport and highways as well as Shipping while D.V. Sadananda Gowda will the railway minister.

V.K. Singh, a former army chief, is the minister of state for external affairs, overseas Indian affairs and development of north eastern region (independent charge).

Harsh Vardhan, the former Delhi chief ministerial candidate, is the new health minister while former TV star Smriti Irani gets the heavy portfolio of human resources development.

Following is the full list of cabinet ministers and ministers of state:

PRIME MINISTER:

Narendra Modi: Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Department of Atomic Energy Department of Space, All important policy issues and all other portfolios not allocated to any minister.

CABINET MINISTERS:

Rajnath Singh: Home Affairs

Sushma Swaraj: External Affairs, Overseas Indian Affairs

Arun Jaitley: Finance, Corporate Affairs, Defence

M. Venkaiah Naidu: Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Parliamentary Affairs

Nitin Gadkari: Road Transport and Highways, Shipping

D.V. Sadananda Gowda: Railways

Uma Bharati: Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation

Najma A. Heptulla: Minority Affairs

Gopinathrao Munde: Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Drinking Water and Sanitation

Ramvilas Paswan: Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution

Kalraj Mishra: Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises

Maneka Gandhi: Women and Child Development

Ananth Kumar: Chemicals and Fertilizers

Ravi Shankar Prasad: Communications and Information Technology, Law and Justice

Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati: Civil Aviation

Anant Geete: Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises

Harsimrat Kaur Badal: Food Processing Industries

Narendra Singh Tomar: Mines, Steel, Labour and Employment

Jual Oram: Tribal Affairs

Radha Mohan Singh: Agriculture

Thaawar Chand Gehlot: Social Justice and Empowerment

Smriti Irani: Human Resource Development

Harsh Vardhan: Health and Family Welfare

MINISTERS OF STATE:

V.K. Singh: Development of North Eastern Region (Independent Charge),

External Affairs, Overseas Indian Affairs

Inderjit Singh Rao: Planning (Independent Charge), Statistics and Programme Implementation (Independent Charge), Defence

Santosh Kumar Gangwar: Textiles (Independent Charge), Parliamentary Affairs, Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation

Shripad Yesso Naik: Culture (Independent Charge), Tourism (Independent Charge)

Dharmendra Pradhan: Petroleum and Natural Gas (Independent Charge)

Sarbananda Sonowal: Skill Development, Entrepreneurship, Youth Affairs and Sports (Independent Charge)

Prakash Javadekar: Information and Broadcasting (Independent Charge), Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Independent Charge), Parliamentary Affairs

Piyush Goyal: Power (Independent Charge), Coal (Independent Charge), New and Renewable Energy (Independent Charge)

Jitendra Singh: Science and Technology (Independent Charge), Earth Sciences (Independent Charge), Prime Minister Office, Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Space

Nirmala Sitharaman: Commerce and Industry (Independent Charge), Finance,

Corporate Affairs

G.M. Siddeshwara: Civil Aviation

Manoj Sinha: Railways

Nihalchand: Chemicals and Fertilizers

Upendra Kushwaha: Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Drinking Water and Sanitation

P. Radhakrishnan: Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises

Kiren Rijiju, Home Affairs

Krishan Pal: Road Transport and Highways, Shipping

Sanjeev Kumar Balyan: Agriculture, Food Processing Industries

Mansukhbhai Dhanjibhai Vasava: Tribal Affairs

Raosaheb Dadarao Danve: Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution

Vishnu Deo Sai: Mines, Steel, Labour and Employment

Sudarshan Bhagat: Social Justice and Empowerment