Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the union government’s second cabinet reshuffle and expansion on Tuesday morning.Initial analysisThe Wire‘s founding editor Siddharth Varadarajan said on the reshuffle:“To describe the Modi cabinet as a glorified election machine is to state the obvious. Not one of the ministers inducted today has come in because of any track record or expectation of performance on the governance front. They have been brought in on the arithmetical calculations of caste and region that Prime Minister Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and the RSS have made. So we see lots of new faces from Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, which go to the polls in the next 18 months.The route to winning elections lies not in such calculations – or in the strategy of communalisation that is being pursued in UP – but in actually delivering on the governance front.Here, there will be widespread disappointment at the prime minister’s failure to drop major laggards and non-performers – he knows who they are but will not act for fear of being accused of having made bad choices in the first place. The five ministers who have been axed include Ram Shankar Katheria, who became notorious earlier this year for his hate speech. But others who have made a habit of engaging in inflammatory talk remain: Sanjeev Baliyan, Niranjan Jyoti, Giriraj Singh.If ‘maximum governance’ is clearly not a priority, gone too is the conceit of ‘minimum governance’.With the 19 new names, the Modi council of ministers – cabinet rank, minister of state (independent charge) and minister of state – stands at 78. I don’t have the number readily available but that seems to me slightly larger than the jumbo government of Manmohan Singh that he was rightly criticised for.”The Wire‘s founding editor M.K. Venu’s take on the reshuffle:“The so-called reshuffle, in which incompetent ministers were supposed to have been dropped, has turned out to be a storm in a teacup. PM Modi himself clarified in various interviews that it’s an expansion and not a reshuffle. Sure enough, the expansion is partly done keeping UP elections in mind. At least two inductees, Anupriya Patel and Krishna Raj, are from eastern UP and belong to lower castes. The BJP’s focus on caste politics is very much alive and kicking. The original list cabinet formation in May 2014 was also largely on caste lines.The widely held belief that the Modi cabinet has major talent deficit remians unaddressed.”New appointeesNineteen new faces were inducted into the council of ministers. The list has several who are OBCs, five Dalits, two from minority communities and two women, drawn from ten states. The new appointees are:S.S. Ahluwalia, Lok Sabha MP from DarjeelingRamesh Chandappa Jigjinagi, Lok Sabha MP from Bijapur, KarnatakaParshottam Rupala, Rajya Sabha member from GujaratM.J. Akbar, Rajya Sabha member from JharkhandArjun Ram Meghwal, Lok Sabha MP from Bikaner, RajasthanAnil Madhav Dave, Rajya Sabha member from Madhya PradeshVijay Goel, Rajya Sabha member from RajasthanRajen Gohain, Lok Sabha member from Nawgong, AssamMahendra Nath Pandey, two-time BJP MLA from Uttar PradeshC.R. Chaudhary, Lok Sabha MP from Nagaur, RajasthanP.P. Chaudhary, Lok Sabha MP from Pali, RajasthanRamdas Athawale, Rajya Sabha member from MaharashtraSubhash Ramrao Bhamre, Lok Sabha MP from Dhule, MaharashtraJaswant Sinh Bhabhor, Lok Sabha MP from Dahod, GujaratMansukh Mandaviya, Rajya Sabha member from GujaratFaggan Singh Kulaste, Lok Sabha MP from Mandla, Madhya PradeshAjay Tamta, Lok Sabha MP from Almora, UttarakhandAnupriya Singh Patel, Lok Sabha MP from Mirzapur, Uttar PradeshKrishna Raj, Lok Sabha MP from Shahjahanpur, Uttar PradeshModi’s new cabinet: As big as Manmohan Singh’s UPA II council of ministersComplete List of the Council of Ministers (as of July 5, 2016) Narendra Modi: Prime Minister, Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Department of Atomic Energy Department of Space, All important policy issues and all other portfolios not allocated to any MinisterCabinet ministersRajnath Singh – Home AffairsSushma Swaraj – External AffairsArun Jaitley – Finance & Corporate AffairsM Venkaiah Naidu – Urban Development Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation, Information & BroadcastingNitin Jairam Gadkari – Road Transport and Highways & ShippingManohar Parrikar – DefenceSuresh Prabhu – RailwaysD V Sadananda Gowda – Statistics & Programme ImplementationUma Bharati – Water Resources, River Development & Ganga RejuvenationNajma A Heptulla – Minority AffairsRamvilas Paswan – Consumer Affairs, Food & Public DistributionKalraj Mishra – Micro, Small & Medium EnterprisesManeka Sanjay Gandhi – Women & Child DevelopmentAnanth Kumar – Chemicals & Fertilizers, Parliamentary AffairsRavi Shankar Prasad – Law & Justice, Electronics & Information TechnologyJagat Prakash Nadda – Health & Family WelfareAshok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati – Civil AviationAnant Geete – Heavy Industries & Public EnterprisesHarsimrat Kaur Badal – Food Processing IndustriesNarendra Singh Tomar – Rural Development, Panchayati Raj Drinking Water & SanitationChaudhary Birender Singh – SteelJual Oram – Tribal AffairsRadha Mohan Singh – Agriculture & Farmers WelfareThaawar Chand Gehlot – Social Justice and EmpowermentSmriti Zubin Irani – TextilesHarsh Vardhan – Science & Technology, Earth SciencesPrakash Javadekar – Human Resource DevelopmentMinisters of state (independent charge)Rao Inderjit Singh – Planning (Independent Charge) Urban Development Housing & Urban Poverty AlleviationBandaru Dattatreya – Labour & Employment (Independent Charge)Rajiv Pratap Rudy – Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (Independent Charge)Vijay Goel – Youth Affairs and Sports (Independent Charge), Water Resources, River Development & Ganga RejuvenationShripad Yesso Naik – AAYUSH (Independent Charge)Dharmendra Pradhan – Petroleum and Natural Gas (Independent Charge)Piyush Goyal – Power (Independent Charge) Coal (Independent Charge) New and Renewable Energy (Independent Charge) Mines (Independent Charge)Jitendra Singh – Development of North Eastern Region (Independent Charge), Prime Minister’s Office, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of SpaceNirmala Sitharaman – Commerce and Industry (Independent Charge)Mahesh Sharma – Culture (Independent Charge), Tourism (Independent Charge)Manoj Sinha – Communications (Independent Charge), RailwaysAnil Madhav Dave – Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Independent Charge)Ministers of stateV.K, Singh – External AffairsSantosh Kumar Gangwar – FinanceFaggan Singh Kulaste – Health & Family WelfareMukhtar Abbas Naqvi – Minority Affairs, Parliamentary AffairsSS Ahluwalia – Agriculture & Farmer Welfare, Parliamentary AffairsRamdas Athawale – Social Justice & EmpowermentRam Kripal Yadav – Rural DevelopmentHaribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary – Micro, Small & Medium EnterprisesGiriraj Singh – Micro, Small & Medium EnterprisesHansraj Gangaram Ahir – Home AffairsGM Siddeshwara – Heavy Industries & Public EnterprisesRamesh Chandappa Jigajinagi – Drinking Water & SanitationRajen Gohain – RailwaysParshottam Rupala – Agriculture & Farmer Welfare, Panchayati RajMJ Akbar – External AffairsUpendra Kushwaha – Human Resources DevelopmentRadhakrishnan P – Road Transport & Highways ShippingKiren Rijiju – Home AffairsKrishan Pal – Social Justice & EmpowermentJasvantsinh Sumanbhai Bhabhor – Tribal AffairsDr Sanjeev Kumar Balyan – Water Resources, River Development & Ganga RejuvenationVishnu Deo Sai – SteelSudarshan Bhagat – Agriculture and Farmers WelfareYS Chowdary – Science & Technology, Earth ScienceJayant Sinha – Civil AviationRajyavardhan Singh Rathore – Information & BroadcastingBabul Supriyo – Urban Development, Housing & Urban Poverty AlleviationSadhvi Niranjan Jyoti – Food Processing IndustriesVijay Sampla – Social Justice & EmpowermentArjun Ram Meghwal – Finance, Corporate AffairsDr Mahendra Nath Pandey – Human Resource DevelopmentAjay Tamta – TextilesKrishna Raj – Women & Child DevelopmentMansukh L Mandaviya – Road Transport & Highways, Shipping, Chemicals & FertilisersAnupriya Patel – Health & Family WelfareCR Chaudhary – Consumer Affairs, Food & Public DistributionPP Chaudhary – Law & Justice, Electronics & Information TechnologyDr Subhash Ramrao Bhamre – Defence