NEW DELHI: India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday named his trusted aide Amit Shah to the key home affairs ministry as part of a major cabinet shakeup for his second term in office.
Nirmala Sitharaman moved from defence to become finance minister in a second shock, while career diplomat S. Jaishankar became foreign minister.
Shah was the president of Modi’s rightwing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and had never served as a minister. He was rewarded for the party’s second landslide victory in the country’s national election.