NDA leaders Shivraj Singh Chouhan, H.D. Kumaraswamy, Manohar Lal Khattar, Dharmendra Pradhan, Nirmala Sitharaman and others during an interaction with Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi over tea, in New Delhi.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Several former chief ministers made their presence felt in the new Modi Cabinet – on Sunday six of them were sworn in. However, five former CMs, who contested polls, did not make it.
Prominent among former CMs who were sworn in include Rajnath Singh, former Haryana CM ML Khattar, former Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and former Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal from within the BJP.
Singh, who was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh from 2000 to 2002, held the defence portfolio in the last Modi Cabinet. Khattar, on the other hand, resigned as the CM in March this year when the BJP government in Haryana faced troubles with the JJP.
Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who had been a Lok Sabha MP from 1991 to 2005, was the CM of Madhya Pradesh from 2005 till 2023, but he was replaced by Mohan Yadav as CM after the BJP came back to power in the state in 2023. Chouhan, whose win margin was over 8 lakhs, also ensured a clean sweep for the BJP in the state’s 28 seats.
Among the allies, former Karnataka CM and JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy and former Bihar CM and HAM chief Jitan Ram Manjhi have been sworn in as part of the Cabinet.
Some of the former CMs that have not been considered for ministerial positions include former Karnataka chief ministers BS Bommai and Jagdish Shettar, former Maharashtra CM Narayan Rane, former Tripura CM Biplab Das, and former Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Singh Rawat.
While Bommai is said to have ruffled feathers the wrong way among the BJP top brass after the party lost the state, Shettar had left the party to join Congress and then came back to BJP in January this year.
Rane, who was the minister for the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises in the previous Cabinet, had won the Lok Sabha election from Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg. The BJP had nominated former Tripura CM Biplab Deb as Rajya Sabha MP after he was replaced by Manik Saha. Rawat, who was the CM of the hill state between 2017 and 2021, was elected from Haridwar this term.