Twenty one new ministers were today inducted into the Union Council of Ministers. Four of them are of the Cabinet rank, three Ministers of State with Independent charge and fourteen Ministers of State. The swearing-in ceremony was held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan where the President administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new ministers. BJP's oldest ally, Shiv Sena, with which it is having standoff on government formation in Maharashtra, boycotted the function.

The newly sworn-in Cabinet Ministers are Manohar Parrikar, Suresh Prabhu, J P Nadda and Chaudhary Birendra Singh. Bandaru Dattatreya, Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Dr Mahesh Sharma are the new Ministers of State with independent charge. The Ministers of State include Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Ramkripal Yadav, Hari Bhai Chaudhary, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Babul Supriyo, Jayant Sinha, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti and Telegu Desam Party's Y S Choudhary.

With this, the total strength of the Union Council of Ministers has gone to 66 from 45. Of this, 27 including the Prime Minister are of Cabinet rank, 13 Ministers of State with Independent Charge and 26 Ministers of State.

Today's swearing-in ceremony was attended among others by Vice President Hamid Ansari, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairperson P J Kurien, BJP patriarch L K Advani and Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu. None from Congress was present in the ceremony.

Bandaru Dattatreya's inclusion gave representation to the new Telangana state in the Central government while Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi made a comeback into the government.