37 ministers in outgoing govt face axe

Sushma Swaraj, J P Nadda, Uma Bharti, Maneka Gandhi and Suresh Prabhu are among 37 ministers in the outgoing government who failed to get a place in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's new team.

Nadda's omission is not considered a demotion but appeared to be a testament of faith in him as he may be elevated as party chief with current president Amit Shah joining Modi government.

From the list, sources said, it appeared that some of the non-performers were given the axe while somewhere kept as a reserve for party work.

Some of the ministers like Anupriya Patel, who belongs to the ally Apna Dal, could make a come back as there are 23 vacancies in the government.

Of the 25 Cabinet Ministers, nine got the axe while Arun Jaitley has requested the Prime Minister to exclude him owing to his health conditions.

The omission of Swaraj, who did not contest the Lok Sabha elections, came as a surprise to many as there was intense speculation that she would make the cut. Maneka's omission comes against the backdrop of her not-so-great relationship with the BJP top leadership. Suresh Prabhu not finding a place in the Cabinet is also seen as interesting.

From Karnataka, Ministers of State Ananthkumar Hedge, a six-term MP, and Ramesh Jigajinagi were omitted from the list while including senior MPs Pralhad Joshi and Suresh Angadi joined the government.

Another interesting omission is that of Jual Oram, the tribal face of BJP in Odisha as well as Radha Mohan Singh, who was Agriculture Minister. Modi and the BJP leadership were not satisfied with Radha Mohan Singh's handling of the agrarian crisis and farmers' protests.

Uma Bharti did not contest 2019 elections while Birender Singh had offered to quit the ministry after his son got Lok Sabha ticket. Shiv Sena's Anant Geete lost the Lok Sabha elections while M J Akbar, who quit the government late last year over #MeToo allegations, was also not considered.

Mahesh Sharma, who handled the Culture Ministry in the outgoing government, also did not make the cut though he was considered close to the RSS. Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore also could not re-enter the Council of Ministers. Same was the case with K Alphons.