Cabinet committees set up, allies adjusted

New Delhi, July 3

The Centre on Wednesday constituted Cabinet committees, including the country’s highest decision-making bodies on security, economic and political affairs.

The members of the Cabinet committees included Union ministers from the BJP and its NDA partners such as the Janata Dal (U), Telugu Desam Party, Janata Dal (S), Shiv Sena and the Lok Janshakti Party.

According to an official notification, the Cabinet Committee on Security comprises PM Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and EAM S Jaishankar.

Apart from the PM, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has Rajnath Singh, Shah, Sitharaman, Jaishankar, Nitin Gadkari, Shivraj Chouhan and HD Kumara-swamy as its members.

Others in the committee are: Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan and Rajiv Ranjan Singh, alias Lalan Singh.

The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs comprises Modi, Rajnath Singh, Shah, Gadkari, Sitharaman, Goyal, JP Nadda, Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu, Jitan Ram Manjhi, Sarbananda Sonowal, Bhupender Yadav, Annpurna Devi, Kiren Rijiju and G Kishan Reddy.

The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs comprises Rajnath Singh, Shah, Nadda, Sitharaman, Rajiv Ranjan Singh, Naidu, Rijiju, Social Justice Minister Virendra Kumar, Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram and Minister of Jal Shakti C R Patil.

The special invitees in the committee are Union Minister of State for Law (Independent charge) Arjun Ram Meghwal and Minister of State for Law L Murugan.

Like previous years, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet comprises only two members — Modi and Shah.