Shri. Dharmendra Pradhan will continue as the Education Minister under the newly elected NDA coalition Govt. headed by Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi. Pradhan won the Sambalpur Lok Sabha seat in the State of Odisha by defeating his nearest BJD rival Pranab Prakash Das by 1,19, 836 votes. He secured 5,92,162 votes while Das got 4,72,326 votes. Congress candidate Nagendra Kumar Pradhan came third with 89,113 votes. The results of the Parliament Elections were declared on 4th June 2024.
Shri. Dharmendra Pradhan, taking oath at the swearing in function for the council of ministers at Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi on 9th June 2024. From Twitter @dpradhanbjp
Coaltion governance returns after a 10-year gap as BJP fell 32 short of the majority seats required (272 is the majority out of the total seats of 543) to form its own government as it did in its previous two terms. BJP led NDA has won 293 seats.
Portfolios of the council of ministers were announced this evening. Shri. Dharmendra Pradhan in his Twitter message minutes ago said, "Grateful to Hon. PM @narendramodi ji for reassigning me the role of Minister of Education in Modi 3.0. A vibrant knowledge vertical will be one of the strongest pillars of Viksit Bharat. Under PM Modi’s guidance, @EduMinOfIndia will continue to redefine and transform the education landscape for empowering India’s population, establishing India as a knowledge economy of the 21st century and achieving the goal of Shikshit [Educated] and Viksit [Developed] Bharat."
Auroville is under the Ministry of Education.
All the 4 ministers of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), the most powerful committee in the government headed by the PM have also retained their previous portfolios: Shri Amit Shah as Home Minister, Shri Rajnath Singh as Defence Minister, Smt Nirmala Sitaraman as Finance Minister & Dr. S. Jaishankar as External Affairs Minister.
Shri. Bhupender Yadav will continue as the Minister for Environment and Shri. Arjun Ram Meghwal as the Minister of Law and Justice.
11 Ministers of the total 72-member council of ministers are from BJP's alliance partners JDU, TDP, Shiv Sena, LJP, and other parties.
The opposition alliance I.N.D.I.A.[Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance] led by Indian National Congress won 232 seats. It was led by DMK in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and they won all the 40 seats they contested.
Source of information: Press Communique, 10 June 2024, 7:37pm by PIB Delhi, news reports and Twitter.
Images: PIB, Delhi.
