Seven women MPs took oath on Wednesday to be inducted into Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new Council of Ministers taking the total strength of women in Modi Cabinet to 11.
When the Modi Cabinet took oath in 2019, it was criticised for scanty representation of women with only three Cabinet Ministers and three Ministers of State. With Harsimrat Kaur Badal resigning, the number of Cabinet Ministers came down to two — Nirmala Sitharaman and Smriti Irani.
The seven women MPs who were sworn in on Wednesday are likely to get ministers of state with the number of Cabinet ministers remaining two. Niranjan Jyoti, Renuka Singh, and Debasree Chaudhury were the ministers of state.
Among them, Debasree Chaudhury has been dropped in this reshuffle. Alliance partner Anupriya Singh Patel who was dropped in Modi.1 was reinducted. A Lok Sabha MP from Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh, Anupriya Singh Patel had served as Union minister of state for health in her earlier stint. Prominent lawyer and two time New Delhi Lok Sabha seat Meenakshi Lekhi is a new much awaited induction in the new council of ministers .
While Pratima Bhaumik from Tripura also took oath for a cabinet berth, Surat MP Darshana Vikram Jardosh also got an opportunity in Modi cabinet. A Lok Sabha MP for Udupi, Sushri Shobha Karandlaje represents Udupi, Karnataka Chikmagalur in Karnataka, the former state minister is now serving her second term as an MP.
A Lok Sabha MP for Kodarma Jharkhand Annpurna Devi also got a berth on Modi council of ministers on Wednesday. She has served as minister in Jharkhand holding portfolios like irrigation, women and child welfare, registration.
She also served as minister of state for mines and geology in the Bihar government when she was only 30. Another first-time woman MP Bharti Pravin Pawar who took Oath on Wednesday is Lok Sabha member from Nashik Maharashtra and is a medico by profession and is being speculated to get MoS Health.