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Modi takes in four Ministers

GANDHINAGAR: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday expanded his Cabinet by inducting four Ministers of State.

This is the first expansion since Mr. Modi took charge after the December 2007 Assembly elections, the third time in a row since he was nominated the Chief Minister by the Bharatiya Janata Party high command in October 2001, replacing Keshubhai Patel.

Since then, two Ministers of State had resigned following police cases. The former Minister of State for Women's Welfare, Mayaben Kodnani, resigned last year following her arrest in connection with the 2002 communal massacre in Naroda Gam, while Minister of State for Home Amit Shah resigned last month after his arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with the Sohrabuddin Sheikh-Kausar Bi murder case.

With the addition of four Ministers of State, the strength of the Modi Cabinet goes up to 21. The new entrants were administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Kamla Beniwal in a ceremony at the Raj Bhavan.

Soon afterwards, Mr. Modi allocated the portfolios to them. Praful Patel, who hails from Himmatnagar in Sabarkantha district, replaces Mr. Shah as Minister of State for Home; Pradipsinh Jadeja, presently chief whip of the BJP legislature party, takes over other portfolios held by Mr. Shah — law, judiciary and parliamentary affairs; Vasuben Trivedi, elected from Jamnagar, takes over higher education, and women and child welfare; while Kanubhai Bhalala, elected from the Visavadar constituency in Junagadh district, will look after agriculture and water resources.

BJP national spokesman Ravishankar Prasad said here on Saturday that arrest of Mr. Shah, who was “totally innocent,” was only a “Congress conspiracy to destabilise the Modi government.”

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