Jaitley is big player after Modi; Rajnath gets home, Sushma foreign

New Delhi: Arun Jaitley has turned out to be the most important person in the new government after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with three heavy portfolios of finance, defence and corporate affairs, it was announced Tuesday.The Rashtrapati Bhavan released the portfolio allocation of 46 ministers, including 24 cabinet ministers, of the government sworn in Monday evening. Sushma Swaraj is the new foreign minister and Rajnath Singh will head the home ministry.Modi has kept with him, like some of his predecessors, the portfolios of personnel, public grievances and pensions as well as the departments of atomic energy and space besides any other department not allocated to any minister. He will, as the presidential communique states, be in charge of "all important policy issues".Rajnath Singh, the BJP president who is likely to hand over the party baton to someone else, gets the important portfolio of home (interior) and Sushma Swaraj gets both external affairs and overseas Indian affairs. M. Venkaiah Naidu, a former BJP president, also gets a lot of responsibility with urban development, housing and urban poverty alleviation as well as parliamentary affairs.Nitin Gadkari, another former BJP president, takes charge of road transport and highways as well as Shipping while D.V. Sadananda Gowda will the railway minister.V.K. Singh, a former army chief, is the minister of state for external affairs, overseas Indian affairs and development of north eastern region (independent charge). Harsh Vardhan, the former Delhi chief ministerial candidate, is the new health minister while former TV star Smriti Irani gets the heavy portfolio of human resources development. Following is the full list of cabinet ministers and ministers of state:PRIME MINISTER:Narendra Modi: Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Department of Atomic Energy Department of Space, All important policy issues and all other portfolios not allocated to any minister.CABINET MINISTERS:Rajnath Singh: Home Affairs, Sushma Swaraj: External Affairs, Overseas Indian Affairs, Arun Jaitley: Finance, Corporate Affairs, Defence, M. Venkaiah Naidu: Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Parliamentary Affairs, Nitin Gadkari: Road Transport and Highways, Shipping, D.V. Sadananda Gowda: Railways, Uma Bharati: Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation. Najma A. Heptulla: Minority Affairs, Gopinathrao Munde: Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ramvilas Paswan: Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Kalraj Mishra: Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Maneka Gandhi: Women and Child Development, Ananth Kumar: Chemicals and Fertilizers, Ravi Shankar Prasad: Communications and Information Technology, Law and Justice.Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati: Civil Aviation, Anant Geete: Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Harsimrat Kaur Badal: Food Processing Industries, Narendra Singh Tomar: Mines, Steel, Labour and Employment, Jual Oram: Tribal Affairs, Radha Mohan Singh: Agriculture, Thaawar Chand Gehlot: Social Justice and Empowerment, Smriti Irani: Human Resource Development, Harsh Vardhan: Health and Family WelfareMINISTERS OF STATE: V.K. Singh: Development of North Eastern Region (Independent Charge), External Affairs, Overseas Indian Affairs, Inderjit Singh Rao: Planning (Independent Charge), Statistics and Programme Implementation (Independent Charge), Defence, Santosh Kumar Gangwar: Textiles (Independent Charge), Parliamentary Affairs, Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Shripad Yesso Naik: Culture (Independent Charge), Tourism (Independent Charge).Dharmendra Pradhan: Petroleum and Natural Gas (Independent Charge), Sarbananda Sonowal: Skill Development, Entrepreneurship, Youth Affairs and Sports (Independent Charge), Prakash Javadekar: Information and Broadcasting (Independent Charge), Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Independent Charge), Parliamentary Affairs, Piyush Goyal: Power (Independent Charge), Coal (Independent Charge), New and Renewable Energy (Independent Charge).Jitendra Singh: Science and Technology (Independent Charge), Earth Sciences (Independent Charge) , Prime Minister Office, Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Space, Nirmala Sitharaman: Commerce and Industry (Independent Charge), Finance, Corporate Affairs, G.M. Siddeshwara: Civil Aviation, Manoj Sinha: Railways, Nihalchand: Chemicals and Fertilizers, Upendra Kushwaha: Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Drinking Water and Sanitation.P. Radhakrishnan: Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Kiren Rijiju, Home Affairs, Krishan Pal: Road Transport and Highways, Shipping, Sanjeev Kumar Balyan: Agriculture, Food Processing Industries, Mansukhbhai Dhanjibhai Vasava: Tribal Affairs, Raosaheb Dadarao Danve: Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Vishnu Deo Sai: Mines, Steel, Labour and Employment, Sudarshan Bhagat: Social Justice and Empowerment