NEW DELHI: Less than 23% of ministers who took oath in 2014 were appointed as ministers in 2024.
Out of the 71 Members of Parliament who took oath as Union Ministers when the Narendra Modi-led government first took office in May 2014, only 18, including the Prime Minister, remain part of the current Cabinet introduced earlier last week.
The 17 MPs who have maintained their performance and political relevance over the last ten years to be included in the Cabinet as either Cabinet Ministers or Ministers of State are Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, Nirmala Sitharaman, Rao Inderjit Singh, Jagat Prakash Nadda, Jitendra Singh, Dharmendra Pradhan, Sarbananda Sonowal, Shripad Yesso Naik, Giriraj Singh, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Mansukh Mandaviya, Kiren Rijiju, Krishan Pal Gurjar, Anupriya Patel, and Virendra Kumar Khatik.
This means that less than 23% of the total ministers who took oath at the start of the 16th Lok Sabha were appointed as ministers 10 years later for the 18th Lok Sabha. Among these 17, only one—Anupriya Patel—is not a member of the BJP.
These numbers are relevant in the ongoing debate about the BJP’s competitiveness over the last decade, where leaders must continuously improve their performance, adapt and maintain their political relevance to earn a ministerial position.
This contrasts sharply with other political parties where the same faces and names often remain active for decades, regardless of performance or contribution to the party’s well-being.
Similarly, out of the 57 MPs from the second Modi ministry, which took oath in May 2019, at the start of the 17th Lok Sabha, 19 others, apart from the PM, were included in the recent Cabinet.
Those 19 who took oath in May 2019 and are now part of the May 2024 Cabinet include Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Amit Shah, Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal, Kiren Rijiju, Arjun Ram Meghwal, S. Jaishankar, Dharmendra Pradhan, Jitendra Singh, Hardeep Singh Puri, Prahlad Joshi, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Shripad Yesso Naik, Rao Inderjit Singh, Krishan Pal Gurjar, G. Kishan Reddy, Nityanand Rai, and Anupriya Patel.
The second Modi Cabinet witnessed one major reshuffle and at least nine other minor changes affecting ministries, where ministers were either dropped, shifted to other ministries, or given new responsibilities. Many of these ministers, who were a part of Modi 1.0 Cabinet, including Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, and Manohar Parrikar, would have likely continued in the successive Cabinets if not for their untimely deaths. Other notable names like Uma Bharti, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Prakash Javadekar, and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who remain significantly active, either did not find a place in the Cabinet, were asked to resign, or were assigned new roles after the reshuffle.