NEW DELHI: Former Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar , who was inducted into the Modi Cabinet on Sunday, expectedly bagged the defence portfolio, according to Times Now.

Parrikar will be taking charge of the defence ministry from Arun Jaitley who was juggling between the finance and defence ministry since the NDA government came into power.

Former Shiv Sena leader Suresh Prabhu , who resigned from the party to join BJP, will replace Sadananda Gowda as the railway minister. Gowda, meanwhile, has bagged the law portfolio, according to reports.

Prabhu, who was power minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led previous NDA government, received the party's primary membership in the morning and was welcomed by senior party leaders.

The 61-year-old banker-politician was a Shiv Sena leader and joins at a time when there is simmering tension between the Sena and the BJP amid talk that Uddhav Thackeray will pull his party out of the government at the Centre and play the role of opposition in Maharashtra.

JP Nadda, who was the frontrunner in the race to become the BJP president, has bagged the health ministry.

Nadda, a Rajya Sabha member, was also among those who were mentioned as likely to be the BJP chief after then party chief Rajnath Singh was inducted into the Modi government as the home minister.

In the parliamentary elections, Nadda played an important role in his home state Himachal and helped the party win all the four seats even though a Congress government was in office.

Birender Singh will assume charge of the rural development ministry, which was earlier under Nitin Gadkari, who is also the minister of road transport and highways.

Ace shooter and Olympian Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore is the minister of charge for information and broadcasting, according to Times Now. Ravi Shankar Prasad, who was relieved of the law portfolio, has retained the telecom ministry.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expanded his council of ministers, bringing in 21 new ministers earlier today. The council of ministers included four new Cabinet ministers, three ministers of state with independent charge and 14 ministers of state.

(With inputs from IANS)

