Smriti Irani was on Tuesday shifted from the key Human Resource Development ministry to less significant Textiles portfolio and replaced by the newly elevated Cabinet minister Prakash Javadekar after an expansion of the Union Council of Ministers and reshuffle in which Finance Minister Arun Jaitley shed the additional Information and Broadcast portfolio.

The shifting of Irani, whose two-year tenure in the Human Resources Development ministry was marked by controversies over dalit scholar Rohith Vemula’s suicide in Hyderabad and the Jawaharlal Nehru University row, triggered speculation whether it was a tactical move to give a less important portfolio or to be left free to be the face of Bharatiya Janata Party campaign in Uttar Pradesh assembly polls due in 2017.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inducted 19 new faces, including BJP leaders S S Ahluwalia, M J Akbar and Vijay Goel, while elevating Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar in the second expansion of his government ahead of political battles in Uttar Pradesh and other states. Akbar will be the second Minister of state for External Affairs along with V K Singh.

Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu gets Information and Broadcasting portfolio but loses the Parliamentary Affairs which has been given to Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Ananthkumar.

The reshuffle also saw D V Sadananda Gowda being relieved of the Law and Justice portfolio which goes to Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. Gowda has got Statistics and Programme implementation.

Jayant Sinha has been shifted from finance to civil aviation in the minister of state rank, a post held by Mahesh Sharma, who will now look after only Culture and Tourism.

Five ministers of state were dropped in the second exercise undertaken by Modi in a little more than two years since he took over in May, 2014 which saw a number of dalit and OBC leaders being given ministerial positions apparently with an eye on assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand next year and Gujarat later.

After the dropping of five ministers, Tuesday’s expansion took the total strength of the Council of Ministers to 78, just keeping it under the constitutionally allowed maximum.

The following is the full list of the rejigged Union Council of Ministers:

Narendra Modi – Prime Minister, personnel, public grievances & pensions, department of atomic energy, department of Space, all important policy issues, and all other portfolios not allocated to any Minister

Cabinet Ministers

1. Raj Nath Singh – Home Affairs

2. Sushma Swaraj – External Affairs

3. Arun Jaitley – Finance, Corporate Affairs

4. M Venkaiah Naidu – Urban Development, Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation, Information & Broadcasting

6. Nitin Jairam Gadkari – Road Transport and Highways, Shipping

7. Manohar Parrikar – Defence

8. Suresh Prabhu – Railways

9. D V Sadananda Gowda – Statistics & Programme Implementation

10. Uma Bharati Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation

11. Dr Najma A. Heptulla – Minority Affairs

12. Ramvilas Paswan – Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution

13. Kalraj Mishra – Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises

14. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi – Women & Child Development

15. Ananthkumar – Chemicals & Fertilizers, Parliamentary Affairs

17. Ravi Shankar Prasad – Law & Justice, Electronics & Information Technology

18. Jagat Prakash Nadda – Health & Family Welfare

19. Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati – Civil Aviation

20. Anant Geete – Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises

21. Harsimrat Kaur Badal – Food Processing Industries

22. Narendra Singh Tomar – Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Drinking Water & Sanitation

25. Chaudhary Birender Singh – Steel

26. Jual Oram – Tribal Affairs

27. Radha Mohan Singh – Agriculture & Farmers Welfare

28. Thaawar Chand Gehlot – Social Justice and Empowerment

29. Smriti Zubin Irani – Textiles

30. Dr Harsh Vardhan – Science & Technology, Earth Sciences

31. Prakash Javadekar – Human Resource Development

Ministers of State with Independent Charge

1. Rao Inderjit Singh – Planning (Independent Charge), Urban Development Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation

2. Bandaru Dattatreya – Labour & Employment (Independent Charge)

3. Rajiv Pratap Rudy – Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (Independent Charge)

4. Vijay Goel Youth Affairs and Sports (Independent Charge) – Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation

5. Shripad Yesso Naik – AAYUSH (Independent Charge)

6. Dharmendra Pradhan – Petroleum and Natural Gas (Independent Charge)

7. Piyush Goyal Power (Independent Charge), Coal (Independent Charge), New and Renewable Energy (Independent Charge), Mines (Independent Charge)

8. Dr Jitendra Singh – Development of North Eastern Region (Independent Charge), Prime Minister’s Office, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions Department of Atomic Energy
Department of Space

9. Nirmala Sitharaman – Commerce and Industry (Independent Charge)

10. Dr Mahesh Sharma – Culture (Independent Charge), Tourism (Independent Charge)

11. Manoj Sinha – Communications (Independent Charge), Railways

12. Anil Madhav Dave – Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Independent Charge)

Ministers of State

1 General V K Singh – External Affairs

2. Santosh Kumar Gangwar – Finance

3. Faggan Singh Kulaste – Health & Family Welfare

4. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi – Minority Affairs, Parliamentary Affairs

5. S S Ahluwalia Agriculture & Farmers Welfare – Parliamentary Affairs

6. Ramdas Athawale – Social Justice & Empowerment

7. Ram Kripal Yadav – Rural Development

8. Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary – Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises

9. Giriraj Singh – Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises

10. Hansraj Gangaram Ahir – Home Affairs

11. G. M. Siddeshwara – Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises

12. Ramesh Chandappa Jigajinagi – Drinking Water & Sanitation

13. Rajen Gohain – Railways

14. Parshottam Rupala – Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Panchayati Raj

15. M J Akbar – External Affairs

16. Upendra Kushwaha – Human Resources Development

17. Radhakrishnan P – Road Transport & Highways, Shipping

18. Kiren Rijiju – Home Affairs

19. Krishan Pal – Social Justice & Empowerment

20. Jasvantsinh Sumanbhai Bhabhor – Tribal Affairs

21. Dr Sanjeev Kumar Balyan – Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation

22. Vishnu Deo Sai – Steel

23. Sudarshan Bhagat – Agriculture and Farmers Welfare

24. Y S Chowdary – Science & Technology, Earth Science

25. Jayant Sinha – Civil Aviation

26. Col. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore – Information & Broadcasting

27. Babul Supriyo -Urban Development, Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation

28. Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti – Food Processing Industries

29. Vijay Sampla – Social Justice & Empowerment

30. Arjun Ram Meghwal – Finance Corporate Affairs

31. Dr Mahendra Nath Pandey – Human Resource Development

32. Ajay Tamta – Textiles

33. Krishna Raj Women & Child Development

34. Mansukh L Mandaviya – Road Transport & Highways, Shipping, Chemicals & Fertilizers

35. Anupriya Patel – Health & Family Welfare

36. C R Chaudhary – Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution

37. P P Chaudhary – Law & Justice, Electronics & Information Technology

38. Dr Subhash Ramrao Bhamre – Defence