A day after Narendra Modi was sworn in as the Prime Minster for a second term along with his 57-member Council of Ministers, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar has announced that the budget for the year 2019-2020 will be presented on 5 July. The Cabinet meeting on Friday, 31 May decided that the first Parliament session for budget will be held from 17 June to 26 July.
The interim budget for the year 2019-20 was presented by then acting Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on 1 February 2019. The budget session on 5 July will be Nirmala Sitharaman’s first presentation since she took charge as the Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs on Thursday, 30 May.
The meeting also decided that election for the Speaker and pro-term Speaker will take place on 19 June.
Sources cited by PTI have stated that Maneka Gandhi will likely become the pro-term Speaker, which means that she will not only administer the oath of office to the newly elected Lok Sabha MPs, but also preside over the first meeting of the Lok Sabha as the Speaker will be elected.
Gandhi held the portfolio of Women and Child Development in Modi's first term, and is now succeeded by Smriti Zubin Irani who also retains the Textile Ministry.
Gandhi had raked up a controversy with her statement during her election campaign that if Muslims didn't vote for her then they would find it difficult to get their work done after she came to power.
New Ministers In, Some Old Ones Out
Gandhi was not the only one dropped from the Council of Ministers. As many as 37 ministers that were a part of the previous government were dropped, including Anantkumar Hegde, Prakash Nadda, Rajyavardhan Rathore, Suresh Prabhu, Uma Bharati and others.
On the other hand, the new Cabinet has also inducted a lot of new faces. While Amit Shah gave up his throne of being the Bhartiya Janata Party's (BJP) chief and joined the party as a Home Minister, there are others such as Ramesh Pokhriyal, Angadi Suresh, Deboshree Choudhury to name a few.
Modi’s New Team Witnesses Several Portfolio Shifts
The Cabinet Secretariat announced the portfolio allocations on Friday, which stated that Modi retains Department of Personnel and Training and Atomic Energy, as well as any important portfolios not yet allocated.
Rajnath Singh is the Minister of Defence; Nitin Gadkari is the Minister of Road Transport and Highways, and Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises; and Ramvilas Paswan is the Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution. Apart from the 24 Cabinet Ministers, there are 24 Ministers of State and 9 Ministers of State (Independent Charge) as well.
(With inputs from ANI and PTI)
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