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| Acting Pm Sushma Swaraj is now official Number 3 |
When PM Modi and his senior most minister Rajnath Singh were both out of the country for three days, it was Sushma Swaraj, who functioned as the "Acting Prime Minister."
Modi was away in Malaysia and Singapore, when Rajnath left for his China visit.
The so-called "Acting Prime Minister" status has no constitutional recognition and is only an administrative arrangement.
It is also a relic of the past as in the present-age of real-time communication, the PM is never beyond reach.
The "Acting Prime Minister" can do nothing more than presiding over cabinet meetings.
When Modi went to Brazil in May 2014, his first foreign trip, he did not bother to designate Rajnath Singh as the Minister in charge. A circular to the effect followed only when he went out again, to the US in September 2014.
Of course, the designation has political significance and shows the PM's comfort level with particular ministers. And for Sushma it signifies a remarkable turnaround.
For someone, who was seen as an Advani follower and Modi detractor, she has managed to build a healthy equation with the Prime Minister.
That leaves Arun Jaitley, a close confidante of Modi, at number four position. The cabinet secretariat's website sets out the pecking order among Ministers - Rajnath, Sushma, Jaitley, Venkaiah Naidu, Nitin Gadkari, Manohar Parrikar and Suresh Prabhu, notes reports The Telegraph.