UP gets maximum number of berths in Modi 2.0 cabinet

The importance of most populous state Uttar Pradesh remained visible as three newly-elected MPs from the state swore-in for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's new cabinet on Thursday.

The three MPs include Rajnath Singh from Lucknow), Smriti Zubin Ir from Amethi) and Mahendra Nath Pandey (Chandauli).

In Uttar Pradesh, Ir's winning matters the most as she took away Amethi, a stronghold of the Congress, by defeating Congress president Rahul Gandhi with a margin of 55,120 votes.

Prime Minister Modi himself represents Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi Lok Sabha seat.

In key Hindi-belt state Bihar, BJP leaders Ravi Shankar Prasad (Patna) and Giriraj Singh (Begusarai) are among those who were inducted in Modi's cabinet.

Two each MPs were selected from Karnataka and Maharashtra.

DV Sadananda Gowda (Bengaluru North) and Prahlad Joshi (Dharwad) are from Karnataka while Shiv Sena's Arvind Sawant (Mumbai South) and Nitin Gadkari (Nagpur) are representing Maharashtra.

SAD leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal from Punjab's Bathinda and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat from Rajasthan's Jodhpur also got a place in the cabinet.

It is worth mentioning that BJP president Amit Shah, who had won from Gujarat's Gandhinagar parliamentary constituency, and Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar made their debut in the government at the Centre.

Ramesh Pokhriyal (Hardwar, Uttarakhand), Shripad Yesso Naik (North Goa), Harsh Vardhan (Chandni Chowk, Delhi), Arjun Munda (Khuti, Jharkhand) and Narendra Singh Tomar (Morena, Madhya Pradesh) too made their way to the Modi's cabinet.

Leaders like Thawar Chand Gehlot and Dharmendra Pradhan, and Rajya Sabha MPs Prakash Javadekar, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Piyush Goyal, LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan and Nirmala Sitharaman are the part of the Modi government for the second consecutive term.

( With inputs from ANI )