Monday 10 June, 2024 epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard X.com/TheMornStandard e a r ly p o l l EU electing far right candidates The first major estimates coming out of European Union parliamentary elections on Sunday suggest that the far right will rise in the legislature Page 9 A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS l New Delhi l J8.00 l PAGES 12 Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with his council of ministers after the swearing-in ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday. President Droupadi Murmu and Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar also seen. The oath ceremony was attended by foreign leaders and other dignitaries | Shekhar Yadav Coalition and continuity in Modi Rajnath, Shah, Gadkari, Sitharaman, Jaishankar in top team RAJ E S H K U M AR T H A K U R @ New Delhi PRIME Minister Narendra Modi returned to power on Sunday with almost all his topranked ministers, giving a clear indication that he will take forward the policies and agendas set in the NDA-II government. However, the Modi 3.0 government will have to take its coalition partners along. President Droupadi Murmu administered the oath of office and secrecy to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his 72-member cabinet comprising 30 cabinet ministers, 5 ministers with independent charge, and 36 ministers of state at the forecourts of the Rashtrapti Bhavan. The event was attended by about 8,000 guests, which included specially invited foreign dignitaries. With the oath taken for a third consecutive term, Modi also became the first non-Congress leader and the second PM after Jawaharlal Nehru to remain in power for three consecutive terms. Dressed in a white kurta with a matching blue-colured jacket, Modi took the oath in Hindi as the head of NDA-III government. After Modi, Rajnath Singh, who was the defence minister in the previous government, was administered the oath of office. Amit Shah, home minister in the previous government, was the next to be sworn in. Nitin Gadkari and J P Nadda followed next. In the 2024 general election, the BJP did not achieve its target of winning of 370 Lok Sabha seats on its own as it got only 240 while the NDA as a whole won 293 seats. After taking oath, PM Modi said his government will continue working for 140 crore Indians and fulfil their dreams. Notably, Modi dropped three senior leaders — Anurag Thakur (elected but not inducted), Smriti Irani (lost the elect i o n ) , a n d R a j e ev C h a n drasekhar (lost) — though there were speculation they might be included in the cabinet. Among the 30 cabinet ministers who took the oath included Nirmala Sitharaman, S Jaishankar, Piyush Goyal, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Hardeep Puri, Giriraj Singh, Dr Jitendra Singh, Ram Das Athawale, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Arjun Meghawal, Bhupendra Yadav, Mansukh Mandaviya, Sarbananda Sonowal, Kiren Rijiju, G Kishan Reddy, Nityanand Rai, Dharamendra Pradhan, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Pralhad Joshi, Virendra Kumar, S P Singh Baghel, L Murugan, and Anupriya Patel. Among the new faces are Suresh Gopi and George Kurian from Kerala; Ajay Tamta (Uttarakhand); Shantanu Thakur and Sukanta Majumdar (West Bengal); C R Patil (Gujarat); Raj Bhushan Chaudhary and Ramnath Thakur (Bihar), among others. | P7 & 8 Chouhan, Nadda, Khattar among new ministers Representation from across states, sections, and classes RAJESH KUMAR THAKUR @ New Delhi prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new cabinet reflects a pan-India presence as it has representation from across 24 states and Union territories. The ministers belong to various sections, classes, and backgrounds. Though the BJP did not fare well in Uttar Pradesh, the representation of ministers from this state is at 9 – higher than other states and UTs. Bihar has 8 ministers, Maharashtra and Gujaraat have 6 ministers each, while Karnataka has 5. As assembly elections in Bihar is in 2025 and BJP with JDU and other local allies is aiming to win big in assembly elections, the state was given 8 ministers spread across its allies JDU, LJP and HAM. Out of the 72 ministers inducted in the cabinet, 43 ministers have more than 3 terms in the ministry while 39 are with past ministerial experiences. Thirty-four have already served in state legisla- ‘Curtains down on public service’ Former Union Minister of State Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Sunday said that his 18-yearlong stint in public service has come to an end. “Today curtains down on my 18-year stint in public service, of which three years I had the privilege to serve with PM @narendramodi ji’s TeamModi2.0, “ he wrote on X tures. Notably, 23 ministers inducted in the third term cabinet of Modi government have experience in working as ministers in states and 27 are from OBC, 10 from Scheduled Castes, and five from Scheduled Tribes. Among the most notable inductions are Suresh Gopi and George Kurian from Left-ruled Kerala, where the BJP managed to open its account this time. Also, ministerial berths have been given to 5 MPs from various minority communities. This time, the cabinet has more experienced politicians as ministers than the NDA’s first and second terms. With a target of making India the world’s third largest economy in next five years, PM Modi has five former chief ministers— Jitan Ram Manjhi from Bihar, H D Kumaraswami from Karnataka, Shivraj Singh Chauhan from Madhya Pradesh, Manohar Lal Khattar from Haryana, and Sarbananda Sonowal from Assam. The Modi 3.0 cabinet will have seven women ministers, including two in the Cabinet role. The new ministers inducted into the council of ministers are former Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman; BJP MPs Annpurna Devi, Shobha Karandlaje, Raksha Khadse, Savitri Thakur, and Nimuben Bambhaniya; and Apna Dal MP Anupriya Patel. There were 10 women ministers in the previous council of ministers, which was dissolved on June 5. 9 pilgirms dead as terrorists attack bus F aya z W a n i @ Srinagar India’s Virat Kohli walks back after getting out to Pakistan’s Naseem Shah. India were all out for 119 in 19 overs | ap | P11 At least nine pilgrims, mostly from UP were killed and 43 oth, ers injured, some of them critically, when a bus they were travelling in came under terror attack and fell into a gorge in Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday evening. Senior Superintendent of Police Mohita Sharma said the bus carrying pilgrims on way from Shiv Khori to Katra was ambushed by terrorists in Kanda area of Pouni, which falls on the border of Reasi and Rajouri districts, in the evening. Due to the firing by terrorists, the driver lost control of the vehicle and the 53-seater bus fell into a gorge, she said. The damaged bus after it plunged into a gorge following an attack by terrorists in Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday | PTI Locals and cops rushed to the area to rescue the passengers. “The rescue operation is complete and nine people have died in the incident,” the SSP said. Empty cartridges were found near the site. An official said eight pilgrims died instantly while another was killed on the way to a hospital. “As many as Carlos JEE-Advanced results declared wins K a v i ta B a j e l i - D at t @ New Delhi 1st french open title Carlos Alcaraz became the youngest men’s player to win Majors in all three surfaces. The 21-year-old prevailed 6-3, 2-6, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 against Alexander Zverev in Paris on Sunday | P11 Ved Lahoti from IIT-Delhi zone topped this year’s Joint Entrance Exam-Advanced (JEE Advanced) scoring a record 355 out of 360 marks. Dwija Dharmeshkumar Patel of IITBombay zone is the top-ranked female candidate. She scored 322 and her all-India rank is 7, according to IIT-Madras, which conducted the exam this year. Aditya from Delhi zone bagged the second rank followed by Bhogalpalli Sandesh of Madras zone at the third position. Others in the top 10 are Aditya (IIT-Delhi zone), Bhogalpalli Sandesh (IIT-Madras zone), Rhythm Kedia (IIT-Roorkee zone), Putti Kushal Kumar (IITMadras zone), Rajdeep Mishra (IIT-Bombay zone), Koduri Tejeswar (IIT-Madras zone), Dhruvi Hemant Doshi (IIT- Bombay zone) and Alladabona SSDB Sidhvik Suhas (IIT-Madras zone). Four of the top 10 rank-holders are from IIT-Madras. The maximum number of candidates have qualified from the IIT-Madras zone, followed by the IIT-Delhi Zone and the IIT-Bombay zone. As many as 48,248 candidates of 1,80,200 who had appeared for papers 1 and 2 in JEE (Advanced) 2024 have qualified, IIT-Madras said. 19 injured were referred to Reasi hospitals while 25 others were rushed to Rajouri hospitals,” the official said. The doctors attending to the injured have termed the condition of some of them as critical. “Troops recently secured the Shiv Khouri shrine. The area domination was conducted adjacent to Shiv Khouri by the troops. Police had also conducted firing practice with Village Defence Group members and they were put on high alert,” the official said. Deputy Commissioner Reasi Vishesh Paul Mahajan reached the site to coordinate rescue operations. Security forces have also been mobilised for search operations. Express read Luxury car mows down rickshaw-puller in city A 45-year-old rickshaw puller died while another injured after being hit by a luxury car near the main gate of Ramjas College in north Delhi on Sunday, police said. The car, an Audi Q3, belongs to lawyer Virendra Mehta (56), a Mukherjee Nagar resident. He was arrested and sent for a medical examination, according to DCP (North) M K Meena. NCP rejects MoS rank, insists on cabinet berth Sudh i r Su r ya w a n s h i @ Mumbai Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Sunday turned down the BJP’s offer to make its leader Praful Patel a minister of state with independent charge in the new NDA government. Patel said since he had already served as a cabinet minister in the UPA government, accepting the of fice of the minister of state with independent charge would be a demotion for him. Par ty leader Ajit Pawar concurred and said the NCP has told the BJP it is ready to wait for a few more days, but it wants a cabinet berth. BJP leader and Maharashtra deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis said the BJP had decided on a criteria for handing out ministerial berths to coalition partners on the basis of their nunbers. “But because of one party , the criteria cannot be twisted,” he said. “The NCP will be accommodated in future whenever their will be an expansion of the Cabinet,” he added. Cabinet ministers Rajnath Singh Amit Shah Nitin Gadkari JP Nadda Shivraj Singh Chouhan Nirmala Sitharaman S Jaishankar Manohar Lal Khattar HD Kumaraswamy Piyush Goyal Dharmendra Pradhan Jitan Ram Manjhi Lalan Singh Sarbananda Sonowal Virendra Kumar Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu Pralhad Joshi Jual Oram Ashwini Vaishnaw Giriraj Singh Jyotiraditya Scindia Bhupender Yadav Gajendra Singh Shekhawat Annapurna Devi Kiren Rijiju Hardeep Singh Puri Mansukh Mandaviya G Kishan Reddy Chirag Paswan CR Patil Ministers of State with independent charge Rao Inderjit Singh Jitendra Singh Arjun Ram Meghwal Prataprao Ganpatrao Jadhav Jayant Chaudhary Ministers of State Jitin Prasada Shripad Naik Pankaj Chaudhary Krishan Pal Gurjar Ramdas Athawale Ram Nath Thakur Nityanand Rai Anupriya Patel V Somanna Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani SP Singh Baghel Shobha Karandlaje Kirti Vardhan Singh BL Verma Shantanu Thakur Suresh Gopi L Murugan Ajay Tamta Bandi Sanjay Kumar Kamlesh Paswan Bhagirath Chaudhary Satish Chandra Dubey Sanjay Seth Ravneet Singh Bittu Durga Das Uikey Raksha Khadse Sukanta Majumdar Savitri Thakur 1st-time MP from city now MoS | P3 Naveen aide Pandian quits active politics, says sorry to BJD for Odisha poll debacle E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Bhubaneswar bureaucrat-turned-politician VK Pandian, Biju Janata Dal chief Naveen Patnaik’s close aide, on Sunday announced his retirement from active politics. Five days after the BJD was voted out of power by a mandate that was overwhelmingly in favour of the BJP Pandian took to social me, dia platform Instagram to announce his move. Pandian was under fire for the spectacular slump of BJD in 2024 elections, which ended Naveen’s five terms as CM. In the just-concluded polls, the BJP got a historic mandate, romping home with 20 out of 21 Lok Sabha seats and 78 in the Odisha Assembly On the other . hand, the BJD managed just 51 seats in the Assembly besides drawing a blank in the LS. After the debacle, Pandian was not seen in the party’s review meetings chaired by Naveen. In his message, Pandian apologised to the party and the Biju Pariwar. “I am sorry if this campaign narrative against me has had a part to play in the BJD’s loss,” he said. Saying that he came to poli- tics only to assist his mentor Naveen ahead of the elections, the 49-year-old Pandian said, “My intent of joining politics was only only to assist Naveen , Babu, and now consciously I decide to withdraw myself from active politics,” he said. He said he had no desire for a specific political post or power. “Therefore I was neither a candidate nor was holding any post in the party It has been my . shortcoming that I could not effectively counter the political narratives,” he said. He said that the only property he owns is the one he inherited from his grandparents and neither he nor any of his family member has any asset anyhwere else in the world. His property statement, he said, has remained unchanged in the last 24 years ever since he joined the IAS. | P5
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