New Delhi: Narendra Modi took oath of the office of Prime Minister for the second time on Thursday and trimmed his council of ministers from 76 to 58, inducting BJP chief Amit Shah in the Union Cabinet and dropping key ministers like Sushma Swaraj, Maneka Gandhi, Suresh Prabhu and Radha Mohan Singh. Arun Jaitley, Finance minister in the previous government and part of the Cabinet Committee on Security, had on Wednesday opted out of the government citing health reasons.
Shah won his first Lok Sabha polls from Ahmedabad by a handsome margin, and in the last one week he has accompanied the Prime Minister on all the important visits — from thanksgiving rally in Gujarat to prayers organised at Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi.