Madi cabinet takes oath, portfolios not out till midnight

Even as Narendra Modi and his cabinet took oath Monday evening, there was no announcement about allocation of portfolios till midnight.

There was no word from officials about the time of announcement of portfolios and why it had been delayed.

Speculation continued throughout the day about the likely portfolios of cabinet ministers with news channels claiming that Rajnath Singh will be home minister, Arun Jaitley will get finance along with additional charge of defence and Sushma Swaraj will be the external affairs minister.

The news channels also claimed that Ananth Kumar would get parliamentary affairs with additional charge of chemicals and fertilizers, Najma Heptulla would get ministry of minorities and Smriti Irani would get human resource development ministry.

Modi was sworn-in as prime minister at a ceremony in the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan. Along with Modi, a 45-strong council of ministers that included 23 of the cabinet took oath. There were seven women in the ministry, including six in the cabinet.