Smriti, Scindia, Sonowal on powerful panels as govt reconstitutes cabinet committees

New Delhi: Days after a major reshuffle of the Modi ministry, the government reconstituted the powerful cabinet committees, bringing in Union ministers Smriti Irani, Bhupender Yadav and Sarbananda Sonowal as the new members of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs headed by the prime minister.

Union ministers Arjun Munda, Virendra Kumar, Kiren Rijiju and Anurag Thakur have been included in the rejigged Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, according to a notification issued by the Cabinet Secretariat last night.

However, there has been no change in the composition of the country's highest decision-making body on security affairs -- the Cabinet Committee on Security -- and the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, which takes call on all important government appointments in the rank of joint secretary and above.

The members of the Cabinet Committee on Security are Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.

The two-member Appointments Committee of the Cabinet comprises the prime minister and the home minister.

The reconstituted Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs comprises the prime minister, and Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, Narendra Singh Tomar, Smriti Irani, Piyush Goyal, Pralhad Joshi, Sarbananda Sonowal, Giriraj Singh, Mansukh Mandaviya and Bhupender Yadav.

Irani, Sonowal, Giriraj Singh, Mandaviya and Yadav are the additions while former ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad and Harsh Vardhan are no longer part of it following their exclusion from the ministry.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has nine members: PM Modi, Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, Narendra Singh Tomar, S Jaishankar, Piyush Goyal and Dharmendra Pradhan, according to the notification.

Earlier, former ministers D V Sadananda Gowda and Ravi Shankar Prasad were also part of this committee.

The members of the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs are: Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nirmala Sitharaman, Narendra Singh Tomar, Arjun Munda, Pralhad Joshi, Virendra Kumar, Kiren Rijiju and Anurag Thakur.

Union Ministers of State for Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal and V Muraleedharan are special invitees to the committe.

Earlier, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Prakash Javadekar were also part of it.

The rejigged Cabinet Committee on Investment and Growth comprises PM Modi, Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal, Narayan Rane, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Ashwini Vaishnaw.

Rane, Scindia and Vaishnaw are the new members.

The members of the Cabinet Committee on Employment and Skill Development are: PM Modi, Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nirmala Sitharaman, Narendra Singh Tomar, Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Hardeep Singh Puri and Bhupender Yadav.

The special invitees in this committee are: Nitin Gadkari, RCP Singh and G Kishan Reddy.

Ashwini Vaishnaw and Bhupender Yadav are the new members while RCP Singh and G Kishan Reddy are new special invitees.

Earlier, former union ministers Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' and Santosh Kumar Gangwar and union minister Mahendra Nath Pandey were members of this committee while Smriti Irani and Prahalad Singh Patel were special invitees.

The members of the Cabinet Committee on Accommodation are Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal and Hardeep Singh Puri while Jitendra Singh is a special invitee. Earlier, Puri was a special invitee.