Ministry of utmost prowess PM Modi's new cabinet is in. These are the men and women who will matter to you for the next five years.

Amit Shah: Home Minister Experience: 1 Rajya Sabha Term

Outgoing: Rajnath Singh



From a polling booth in-charge to heading the world’s largest political party to cabinet minister, the journey of BJP president Amit Anilchandra Shah has been stupendous to say the least.



For 14 years in Gujarat, Shah was the most trusted lieutenant of then CM Narendra Modi. His career suffered a brief setback in 2010, when he, as the MoS home of Gujarat, was arrested in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh and Tulsiram Prajapati encounter cases. He was granted bail on the condition that he would stay away from Gujarat. But Shah used his time in Delhi to not just sort out his legal problems but also understand the nitty-gritty of national politics.



Immediately after the 2014 LS polls, Shah was elevated to BJP president. Incidentally, Shah honed his political skills in his home state Gujarat, where he started as a booth manager in the Gandhinagar constituency – the seat which he won this year with a record margin of 5.57 lakh votes. When he’s not busy with politics, Shah likes playing chess and watching theatre. He also likes to learn new languages.

Rajnath Singh: Defence Minister Experience: 2 Lok Sabha, 2 Rajya Sabha Terms

Outgoing minister: Nirmala Sitaraman



A seasoned politician of many decades and former party president, Rajnath Singh was instrumental in pitching for Narendra Modi as prime minister, as mandated by the RSS. In the last government, he was an efficient home minister who kept a low profile. He implemented the party’s tough line on terror, asking security agencies to act impartially on intelligence inputs. He also adopted a policy of rehabilitation for individuals who might have been radicalised, but had not yet committed a crime and were open to reconsidering their choices.



As a former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, his presence will balance caste and regional equations in the top levels of government. He has experience as a political manager, having been drafted in to seal alliances and sort out inner-party crises in the past.

Nirmala Sitharaman: Finance Minister Experience: 2 Rajya Sabha Terms

Outoing Minister: Arun Jaitley



The last five years have seen a meteoric rise of this former JNU student, who joined the BJP just over a decade ago. She was nominated as party spokesperson in 2010. Under the government led by AB Vajpayee, she served as a member of the NCW 2003 till 2005.



The two time Rajya Sabha member started out in May 2014 as an unsure minister of state with independent charge of commerce and industry. In September 2017, she went on to become India’s first full-time woman defence minister and a member of the hallowed cabinet committee on security.



As the ‘Raksha Mantri’, Sitharaman took some time to find her feet in the complex defence ministry, and the overwhelmingly male dominated environs of the armed forces, with all its national security challenges. It was, of course, not easy to follow heavy-weight predecessors like Pranab Mukherjee, A K Antony, Arun Jaitley and Manohar Parrikar.



She was also confronted with the tough task of countering Congress’ charge of crony capitalism in the Rs 59,000-crore Rafale deal, inked during Parrikar’s tenure. She vigourously defended the government’s stand on the defence deal. There was persistent talk she was kept out of the loop on major decisions, like the pre-dawn air strikes on the JeM facility in Balakot. But the earnest minister, who rarely smiles, did not let go. She retains PM Modi’s trust.