Two persons stole the show during the nearly two-hour-long swearing-in ceremony. The first of them may have been easy to guess: Narendra Damodardas Modi. But the second one was quite a surprise.

When Pratap Chandra Sarangi, first-time Member of Parliament from Balasore, Odisha, was called upon to take his oath as Minister of State, a section of the 5,000-plus crowd was on its feet, clapping.

Sarangi had been called 56th (out of 58) on the list, at the fag end, but the invocation of his name set off a frisson of energy. Sarangi contested the election with very limited resources. He used a bicycle and public transport to campaign. Sarangi was a surprise inclusion in the Ministry.

Another surprise induction was that of S Jaishankar, the former Foreign Secretary. He had been given a seat in the first row.

There are six women in the Ministry, accounting for 10 per cent of the total. Three of them have Cabinet rank; the three others are Ministers of State. The Ministry has four bureaucrats and one Army General. And going against expectations, it has only a small representation from West Bengal and Odisha, where the BJP performed better than expected. Four allies became part of the Council, but one partner, the JD (U), did not join; it is believed to have sought more than one ministerial post, whereas the BJP was willing to include one Minister each from all its allies.

The President interrupted five of the Ministers who stumbled over their oaths. One Minister, G Kishan Reddy, ended with a ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ slogan.

Anil Kapoor, Anupam Kher, and other film stars were present; but it was Mary Kom and Gautam Gambhir who got the most number of requests for selfies. Strikingly, cell phones were allowed to be carried to the venue.

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