NITI Aayog Rejig: Odisha MP Ashwini Vaishnaw Out, Jual Oram Gets Entry As Special Invitee

New Delhi: The Narendra Modi-led NDA government has reconstituted NITI Aayog by including members from its allies as special invitees.

From Odisha, Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram, who is also a BJP MP from Sundargarh, has been inducted in the government think-tank as a special invitee. He has replaced Railway Minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, who is a Rajya Sabha member from Odisha, in the Aayog, which now includes more representation from the BJP allies in the NDA.

However, no changes have been made to the post of Vice-Chairman and full-time members and the chairperson, Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, remains the chairperson of the Aayog. Economist Suman K Berry is still the Vice-President.

According to an official notification, it has ben reconstituted with 15 Union Ministers, including those from BJP-led NDA allies and four full-time members, being its part. Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Shivraj Singh Chouhan is the new ex-officio member. The other ex-officio members are Union Ministers Rajnath Singh (Defence), Amit Shah (Home), and Nirmala Sitharaman (Finance).

The other unchanged full-time members are VK Saraswat, Ramesh Chand, VK Paul and Arvind Virmani.

Focus on allies as special invitees
The special invitees in the reconstituted Aayog are Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari (Road Transport and Highways), Jagat Prakash Nadda (Health), HD Kumaraswamy (Heavy Industries and Steel), Jitan Ram Manjhi (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises), Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh (Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying). Other special invitees are Union Ministers Virendra Kumar (Social Justice and Empowerment), Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu (Civil Aviation), Annpurna Devi (Women and Child Development), Chirag Paswan (Food Processing Industries) and Rao Inderjit Singh (Statistics and Programme Implementation).

The think-tank includes members from the BJP allies in the NDA. Kumaraswamy belongs to NDA partner Janata Dal (Secular), Manjhi is from Hindustani Awam Morcha, Rajiv Ranjan Singh is from Janata Dal (United), Naidu belongs to TDP and Paswan is from Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas).

Who were excluded?
Former Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has not been included in the Aayog. Last year, he was the ex-officio member. But this time, he was not included as he is not a Cabinet Minister. Earlier, Piyush Goyal and Ashwini Vaishnaw were also special invitees in the government think-tank. But both have been excluded. This despite the fact that Vaishnaw continues to hold the railways portfolio in the Modi-led NDA government.

The National Institution for Transforming India or the NITI Aayog was constituted in 2015 as the NDA chose to scrap the 65-year-old Planning Commission.