Daijiworld Media Network – New Delhi
New Delhi, Jul 8: Udupi-Chikkamagaluru MP Shobha Karandlaje was named the new Minister of State (MoS) for the ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
Expressing her gratitude after administering the oath as cabinet minister the BJP MP said, "I would like to thank all the people of Udupi and Chikkamagaluru and those who have supported me throughout my political journey. People of two constituencies elected me as MP two times. Prime Minister Modi, union home minister Amit Shah and BJP president JP Nadda have given me the opportunity to serve in the cabinet as a minister and I am grateful to all the BJP party workers and the voters. This is made possible because of the sincere effort of party activists and voters of the Udupi-Chikkamagaluru constituency."
It may be recalled, forty-three MPs took oath as ministers in first mega cabinet expansion (in the second term) by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday. Of these, 36 including Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sarbanand Sonowal are new faces while seven are sitting ministers. Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman, S Jaishankar, Narendra Singh Tomar retained their portfolios of Defence Ministry, Finance Ministry, External Affairs Ministry and Agriculture Ministry, respectively. Of 43, 15 ministers were inducted into the Union Cabinet and 28 Ministers inducted as Ministers of State.
Earlier, ahead of Union Cabinet reshuffle and expansion, 12 Union Ministers including Ravi Shankar Prasad, Dr Harsh Vardhan, Prakash Javadekar, Ramesh Pokhriyal and DV Sadananda Gowda resigned from their posts of Council of Ministers.