New Delhi, May 31: Six women ministers were inducted into Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new Cabinet at a grand event at the Rashtrapati Bhawan on Thursday. Among the six are senior BJP leaders Nirmala Sitharaman, Smriti Irani and Harsimrat Kaur Badal apart from the other prominent women ministers in the newly elected government. On Thursday, a 57-member council of ministers were sworn in by President Ram Nath Kovind and it is learnt that several ministers have been given the top portfolios. With the induction of 57 ministers, Prime Minister has enough scope for an expansion and reshuffling of cabinet. PM Narendra Modi Congratulates Newly Appointed Ministers, Vows to Work For Country's Progress.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi took oath for the second time on Thursday after a landslide victory Lok Sabha Polls. 57 ministers joined the Prime Minister in the swearing-in held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The Modi government has 20 first-time union ministers including BJP chief Amit Shah, former Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar and two former chief ministers Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank Aand Arjun Munda. List of First-Time Ministers in Narendra Modi Cabinet 2.0: Amit Shah, S Jaishankar, Arvind Sawant Among First-Timers.

The six women ministers in the Modi cabinet this year include- Nirmala Sitharaman, Smriti Irani, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Renuka Singh Saruta, Debashree Chaudhury.

Women Ministers in Modi Cabinet (Photo Credits: File Photo)

Nirmala Sitharaman: 

Nirmala Sitharaman, who was the Union Defence minister in the Modi government 1.0, is one of the six women ministers in the Modi cabinet. This time, Sitharaman has been given the Finance Ministry, as a successor of Arun Jaitley. The 60-year-old leader, who was sworn in as part of the new government, will also be the Minister of Corporate Affairs. The senior BJP leader is a Rajya Sabha member and the second woman to be at the key ministry. Sitharaman was born in Tiruchirapalli (Tamil Nadu) and the only woman representative among the ministers from southern part of the country.

Smriti Irani

Smriti Irani, the giant killer of this Lok Sabha election who vanquished Congress President Rahul Gandhi, has been given the Women And Child Development Ministry, which was earlier with Maneka Gandhi. Irani has also been given the Textiles Ministry in the new government.  The BJP leader emerged as a trouble shooter for the ruling party. The Minister was inducted in the Modi cabinet in 2014 with the Human Resource Development portfolio. Irani was later moved to the Textiles Ministry, apart from being charge of the the Information and Broadcasting portfolio for some time in the last government tenure.

Harsimrat Kaur Badal

Harsimrat Kaur Badal has been given the Ministry for food processing. Even in the last Modi Cabinet, Badal had the same ministry under her.  The  53-year-old leader is the Member of Parliament from Bathinda. Kaur is another woman MP who has secured a ministerial berth for the second consecutive term in the Modi Cabinet even this year. In the recently concluded Lok Sabha Polls, she managed to defeat Congress legislator Amrinder Singh Raja by a thin margin of 21,772 votes. Born in Delhi in the year 1966, Harsimrat is a matriculate and holds a diploma in textile design. In 2014, she had retained her Lok Sabha seat of Bathinda for her party Shiromani Akali Dal and emerged victorious by over 19,000 votes.

Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti 

Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti is back in the Modi Cabinet after winning from Fatehpur parliamentary constituency in Uttar Pradesh. Jyoti improved her victory margin this time by over 70,000 votes in the recently concluded Lok Sabha Polls this year. The 52-year-old minister was sworn in the Narendra Modi-led Union cabinet on Thursday. Before testing her popularity as an MP, she was an MLA in Uttar Pradesh from 2012 to 2014, when she represented Hamirpur assembly constituency. In the

In the previous Modi cabinet, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti held the portfolio of Minister of State for Food Processing Industries. The MP has been a strong advocate of promoting afforestation, social and cultural values, protecting cows, uplifting poor children and helping women from financially weak backgrounds get married

Renuka Singh Saruta

Renuka Singh Saruta was the member of Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly from Premnagar Assembly constituency then Surguja district during 2003-2008. The tribal leader of the BJP from Chhattisgarh,  was a former minister in the Raman Singh government. Her recent achievement was to turn the tide in the BJP’s favour in Sarguja during the Lok Sabha election. The leader, who resides at Village and Post- Parshuramnager Block- Ramanujnager, took oath as Minister of State in Modi cabinet on May 30.

Debashree Chaudhury

Deboshree Choudhary is Member of Parliament from Raiganj loksabha constituency of West Bengal. Chowdhury is a first timer in the newly elected government who took oath as a Minister of State on May 30.  Chowdhury, who  resides at Baguiati in Kolkata, contested 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Bardhaman-Durgapur seat of West Bengal. In 2019, she was elected to Lok Sabha, and was sworn in as a minister in Prime Minister Modi's team in May 2019. Narendra Modi Cabinet 2.0: Full List of New Ministers Who Took Oath Along With Prime Minister; Portfolios to be Finalised Soon.

The Lok Sabha Elections 2019 in India gave the nation a total of  78 women MPs, the highest in our nation’s history! According to reports, of the 724 women who contested the 2019 general elections, 78 will be sworn in as members of parliament (MPs)–the largest-ever number of women in India’s parliamentary history.

In 2014, the Modi Cabinet had seven women ministers including six with Cabinet rank in the 45—member Council of Ministers headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Apart from Nirmala Sitharaman, who was made Minister of State with Independent Charge, the others including Sushma Swaraj, Uma Bharti,  Maneka Gandhi, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Smriti Zubin Irani and Najma Heptulla, the lone Muslim face, were given Cabinet rank.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 31, 2019 12:43 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).