Seven women, including two in Cabinet roles, have been inducted into the new council of ministers in the 18th Lok Sabha on Sunday. The previous council, which dissolved on June 5, had ten women ministers.
Those dropped from the council include former Union Minister Smriti Irani, Minister of State Bharti Pawar, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Darshana Jardosh, Meenakshi Lekhi, and Pratima Bhoumik.
The new female ministers are former Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, BJP MPs Annpurna Devi, Shobha Karandlaje, Raksha Khadse, Savitri Thakur, and Nimuben Bambhaniya, and Apna Dal MP Anupriya Patel.
Sitharaman and Devi have been inducted into the union cabinet, while the others have been sworn in as ministers of state.
Irani and Pawar lost their seats in Amethi and Dandori, respectively. Jyoti, Jardosh, Lekhi, and Bhoumik were not fielded by the BJP.
Devi, Karandlaje, Khadse, Sehrawat, and Patel, who won the recent elections, have joined the new council of ministers.
A total of 74 women won the Lok Sabha elections this year, a slight decrease from the 78 elected in 2019.
Narendra Modi, along with his 71 council of ministers, took the oath on Sunday, marking the start of a new coalition government after two full terms where the BJP had a majority on its own.
Modi’s first term in 2014 saw eight women ministers. In his second term, six women were sworn in, and by the end of the 17th Lok Sabha, there were ten women ministers.