Forty-three ministers took the oath of office today at 6 pm as Prime Minister Narendra Modi expanded his Cabinet.
Ahead of the expansion on Wednesday evening, the then candidates met Modi at his residence.
Those meeting Modi included BJP's Narayan Rane, Sarbananda Sonowal, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Ajay Bhatt, Bhupender Yadav, Shobha Karandlaje, Sunita Duggal, Meenakshi Lekhi, Bharati Pawar, Shantanu Thakur and Kapil Patil, JD(U)'s R C P Singh, LJP's Pashupati Paras and Apna Dal's Anupriya Patel.
Here is a complete list of those that took the oath and some information about them:
New faces from BJP
Jyotiraditya Scindia
Credited with re-acquiring a lost state for the Bharatiya Janata Party through his rebellion, Scindia has now reaped the rewards of switching over to the saffron party after being appointed a Union minister. Scindia, who joined politics in 2002 after the demise of his father and Congress leader Madhavrao Scindia, bid adieu to his long-time party in March 2020. His exit came as a surprise mainly because he was seen as a Rahul Gandhi loyalist, and had worked extensivley for Congress' win in Madhya Pradesh at a time when the party was struggling to regain its hold in the Hindi heartland.
Scindia alleged that the Congress high command was sidelining him to promote Kamal Nath, who was also the chief minister of the state at the time. Scindia walked out of the state government with 22 other MLAs who supported him, leading to the downfall of the Congress government and joined the BJP. However, apart from political reasons to accommodate him, Scindia's induction also makes sence otherwise. He is a four-time Lok Sabha MP from his family strong-hold Guna constituency, is a house-hold name in Madhya Pradesh due to his royal lineage, and exerts strong control in the Guna-Gwallior region.
He also comes with extensive administrative experience. He is a former Union minister in the UPA government. He was the Minister of State with independent charge for Power in the cabinet of prime minister Manmohan Singh from October 2012 until May 2014. He has also served as the Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology and as Minister of State for Commerce and Industry in the UPA governments.
Sarbananda Sonowal
The former Assam chief minister's return to New Delhi power corridors was a political masterstroke on two counts: On one hand, it rewarded Sonowal for his proverbial 'sacrifice' in stepping aside to let his contemporary Himanta Biswa Sarma take charge of the state despite winning the election. took care of any simmering dissatisfaction in the state unit that may have arisen because of two senior leaders' influence over the state politics. Sonowal's tribal identity, his strong roots in the state of Assam, and his familiarity with the state of affairs in other Northeastern states will send a positive message for the BJP.
Sonowal's presence in the Cabinet is also due to his experience and expertise. Apart from the administrative experience of handling affairs of a sensitive state like Assam, Sonowal has also served as the Union minister for sports and youth affairs in the previous Modi government. He started his political career first as a member of All Assam Students Union and later joined the Asom Gana Parishad. But he has been a steady fixture in the BJP's Assam unit for over a decade now and is credited with strengthening the BJP's presence in the state.
Virendra Kumar Khatik
Bhupender Yadav
Pankaj Chaudhary
A six-time Lok Sabha MP, Pankaj Choudhary brings with him a wealth of experience in the Union council of ministers. Sworn in on Wednesday as a Union minister, Choudhary (56) began his political career in 1989-91 as a member of the Gorakhpur Municipal Corporation, soon to become it's deputy mayor. He became a member of the BJP working committee in 1990. He was elected for the first time to the lower house of Parliament from Uttar Pradesh's Maharajganj in 1991.
He was re-elected from the constituency in 1996 and 1998. Choudhary, however, lost to Akhilesh Singh of the Samajwadi Party in the 1999 General Election. He later won the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. In 2009, he lost to the Congress candidate from Maharajganj. In 2014, Choudhary won from the same constituency and again in 2019 to become a member of the Lok Sabha for the sixth time.
Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma
Sworn in as a Union minister for the first time on Wednesday, five-time Lok Sabha MP Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma hails from a small place in Jalaun district of Uttar Pradesh. Yadav (63) had become an MLA in 1991. Chaudhary got elected to the Lok Sabha five times--in 1996, 1998, 2004, 2014 and 2019--from the Jalaun constituency. In 2001, he became vice-president of the UP BJP's SC Morcha and a decade later, he became its president. As an MP, he was a member of the Committee on Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
Darshana Vikram Jardosh
After serving in various positions in the Gujarat BJP for over three decades, incumbent Lok Sabha MP from Surat Darshana Jardosh, is all set for a bigger role as a minister in the Narendra Modi government. Jardosh (60), belongs to the Darji community which comes under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category. She made a winning hat-trick from Surat in 2009, 2014 and in 2019.
According to her official biodata, Jardosh had held the position of the vice president of Surat BJP''s ward no. 8 committee in the late 1980s and was later elected as a corporator from the same ward in 2000. Subsequently, she was appointed as the president of the women''s wing of the Surat BJP and then as the general secretary of the state BJP women''s wing till 2008.
In her maiden Lok Sabha contest from Surat in 2009, Jardosh defeated Congress'' Dhiru Gajera by a margin of over 74,000 votes. Not a known face outside Surat and someone who likes to keep a low profile, Jardosh emerged victorious in the general elections of 2014 and 2019 winning her seat by a thumping margin of over 5 lakh votes on both the occasions. After she became an MP in 2009, Jardosh served as a member of different committees of Parliament, such as committees for chemicals and fertilisers, estimates, empowerment of women, finance and business advisory.
Meenakshi Lekhi
Annapurna Devi Yadav
Yadav, who was appointed RJD state president in 2018, joined the BJP just weeks ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in 2019. She was expelled from the RJD for six years for 'anti-party' activities.
A Narayanswamy
The Dalit and former Karnataka minister is a four-time MLA. Contesting his first Lok Sabha polls in 2019, he emerged victorious in Chitradurga. He is said to be soft spoken and is rather popular within the party.
Kaushal Kishore
Having spent over three decades in public life, Kaushal Kishore on Wednesday was sworn in as a Union minister in the Narendra Modi government. A two-time MP, Kishore (61) represents the Mohanlalganj Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh. Kishore, who belongs to the Schedule Castes (Pasi) community, is the national president of the Parakh Mahasangh and is the state chief of the BJP’s SC wing. He began his political career as an MLA from Malihabad in 2002. In 2002-03, he also rose to be a minister of state in the Samajwadi Party’s Mulayam Singh government. An influential leader of the party, he is recognised for his activism related to issues of social justice.
Ajay Bhatt
Nainital MP Ajay Bhatt simultaneously held two important offices as the Uttarakhand BJP chief and the Leader of Opposition at the time of the previous Assembly polls, and piloted his party to a massive win of 57 of 70 seats. The Nainital MP, who was sworn in as a Union minister on Wednesday, has served the BJP successfully in several key positions in Uttarakhand over the years.
The former Ranikhet MLA helped the BJP overcome the formidable challenge of wresting power from the Congress in the 2017 polls. The 60-year-old Brahmin leader from Kumaon had a stroke of bad luck too as he himself could not retain his own seat. However, Bhatt more than made up for the loss when he became an MP for the first time in the 2019 General Election, defeating seasoned Congress leader and former chief minister Harish Rawat in Nainital by 3,39,096 votes.
It was the biggest margin with which any MP had won from the state that year and highly creditable given the fact that it was Bhatt's Lok Sabha poll debut made against a Congress heavyweight like Rawat. Though aggressive as a Leader of Opposition, Bhatt's attacks in the Assembly were always couched in dignified language. He always came to the House fully prepared, armed with facts and figures and never faltered during debates.
Ajay Kumar
Sworn in as a Union minister on Wednesday, 60-year-old Ajay Kumar Mishra is a first-time BJP MP, representing Kheri Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh. He was elected as an MLA in 2012 from the Nighasan Assembly seat. Mishra started political career as the BJP''s district general secretary and rose gradually to become a Member of Parliament. Right from his youth, he was associated with activities such as education of the children from weaker sections and help them get medical facilities and employment.
Devusinh Jesingbhai Chauhan
The 56-year-old is an MP from Gujarat's Kheda. He previously served as an MLA in the Gujarat Assembly. Prior to his political career, he worked for All India Radio. He has a diploma in electrical engineering.
Shobha Karandlaje
The MP from Karnataka's Malnad was inducted into the Cabinet with a view to cement the BJP's foothold in the region and make inroads with the Vokkaliga community. Hailing from a farming family in Puttur near Mangalore, she is said to be close to Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa and famous for her work ethic.
Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad
Karad hails from Chikhali village in Aurangabad district's Ahmedpur taluka. A doctor, he graduated from Government Medical college.
RK Ranjan Singh
Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, who was sworn in as Union minister of state on Wednesday, is a member of an erstwhile royal clan in Manipur and has worked for unity among various tribes in his state. R K Ranjan, as he is popularly known, was born on September 1, 1952 in the village of Kongba Makha Nandeibam Leikai in Manipur's Imphal East district. The former academic and now politician is seen as a unifier. Son of the late Rajkumar Manisana Singh, he is married to Debala Devi.
After graduating from Dhana Manjuri College Imphal, he did his master's in Geography in 1972 from Guwahati University and later a PhD on ''problems of land-use'' in Manipur. R K Ranjan hails from the Manipur royal clan which is still highly regarded in the state. After teaching in colleges in Manipur, he joined Manipur University (MU) as an assistant professor in the department of Earth Sciences. He was appointed registrar at MU and served from 2004 to 2008. In 2013, he joined the BJP and contested the Lok Sabha elections in the next very year. However, his debut was marked by defeat. In 17th Lok Sabha elections held in 2019, he was elected as Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha from inner Manipur parliamentary constituency on the BJP ticket.
Bishweswar Tudu
The MP represents Odisha's Mayurbhanj parliamentary constituency.
Mahendra Munjapara
The 52-year-old is a first-time MP from Gujarat's Surendranagar. He has an MD in General Medicine and Therapeutics from Gujarat University. Prior to entering public life, he was a cardiologist and professor of medicine for three decades.
Shantanu Thakur
It was a family feud that brought Santanu Thakur into politics and now he is one of the most influential leaders of the politically-crucial Matua community of West Bengal. Thirty-eight-year-old Santanu Thakur, Lok Sabha member from Bongoan parliamentary seat who was sworn in as a union minister this evening, is one of the heir apparents of the influential Thakurbari – a socio-religious sect formed by his ancestors Harichand-Guruchand Thakur- for the uplift of the Matuas, the second-largest scheduled caste community of the state.
A graduate by education, Santanu, the eldest son of former TMC minister Manjul Krishna Thakur, was more into the development of the Matuas through various social services run by the Thakurbari in Thakurnagar and was never into politics. Matuas, with their sheer size of the population and tendency to vote en bloc, just like the minorities, make for an enviable vote bank that all the political parties had tried to secure since the nineties.
TMC chief Mamata Banerjee had first reached out to the Matuas around a decade ago. She nominated Manjul Thakur as a candidate in 2011 and inducted him in her ministry as a minister of state. In 2014, Manjul's elder brother Kapil Krishna Thakur was nominated as a TMC candidate from the Bongaon Lok Sabha seat, which he had won hands down. It was in February 2019, following a socio-religious meeting of the Matua community, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed, that Sanatanu decided to join active politics, and within a month, he was given nomination from the Bongaon Lok Sabha seat.
Riding on the promise of implementation of CAA and NRC, Santanu won the seat by defeating his aunt and became one of the key leaders of the BJP in the state.
L Murugan
The Tamil Nadu BJP chief was born in the state's Namakkal district in 1977. He was Standing Counsel to the Government of India at Madras High Court and also served as vice-chairperson of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes.
Narayan Rane
Having spent the better part of his political career in the Shiv Sena, Narayan Rane has come a long way, leaving two parties and forming his own outfit for a while, before joining hands with the BJP and becoming a Union minister. Rane (69) began his political career as a ''shakha pramukh'' (local ward chief) in the Sena and rose up the ranks to become chief minister at the fag end of the Shiv Sena-BJP government's term in 1999.
Not known to mince words, the Maratha leader having pockets of influence in the coastal Konkan region, was picked by Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray as chief minister when he decided to remove the genial Manohar Joshi ahead of the 1999 Assembly elections. Thackeray, however, expelled Rane from the Sena in July 2005 for "anti-party activities" after he alleged that tickets and posts were for sale in the Shiv Sena.
Rane joined the Congress in August 2005 and quit it in September 2017. "I waited for 12 years. When I found that there was no scope for me in the Congress, I decided to quit from the primary membership of the party and membership of the legislative council," he had said in his rant against the party over "injustice" done to him and his supporters. Rane then said he had joined the Congress because he was assured that he will be made chief minister in six months.
After quitting the Congress, Rane launched the Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha in October 2017. In 2018, he declared support for BJP and was elected to the Rajya Sabha on that party's nomination. In October 2019, he merged his party with the BJP. Over the years, Rane's political rivals have been linking him to several incidents of violence, claiming his involvement in the murder of Shiv Sena worker Shridhar Naik and some other crimes in his Sindhudurg region of Konkan.
Kapil Patil
The politician joined BJP in 2014. Until then, he was a member of the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party. Patil became an MP in 2014 for the first from Maharashtra’s Bhiwandi. He also won the General elections in 2019 from the same constituency. Patil is also the vice-president of Maharashtra BJP since July, 2020.
Ashwini Vaishnav
The 51-year-old has worn many hats: bureaucrat, MBA, techie, politician and now minister. The 1994-batch IAS Officer from Odisha cadre, Vaishnaw rose to prominence through his meticulous service when the state was hit by a super cyclone in 1999. Back then, he spent his long shifts tracking the cyclone on US Navy website and followed it up by intimating Chief Secretary’s office on regular intervals. “He tracked the cyclone every hour and sent a report to the chief secretary at regular intervals, which became a major source of information for the Odisha government about the cyclone,” an official who then worked in the chief secretary’s office recalled.
G Kishan Reddy
The 61-year-old is Minister of State for Home Affairs. He was elected as a Member of Parliament to 17th Lok Sabha, in 2019, from Secunderabad Constituency, Telangana. He was earlier a 3-time MLA and BJP Floor Leader in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Assemblies. Hailing from Ranga Reddy District of Telangana State, he was born in a middle-class farmers’ family in 1960 to Late Sri Gangapuram Swami Reddy and Late Smt. Andalamma. He is married to Kavya, a homemaker who duly supports him in his political journey. His daughter, Vaishnavi and son, Tanmai are pursuing their higher studies. He displayed leadership instincts since his childhood, drawing inspiration from Lokmanya Jayaprakash Narayan, who was the mascot in the fight against Emergency and corruption.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar
The three time Rajya Sabha member was previously an Independent MP representing Karnataka in the Upper House from 2006 to 2018. He was Kerala NDA’s vice-chairman in the 2016 Assembly elections and media and communication in-charge for the 2018 Karnataka Assembly elections.
BL Verma
A member of the Rajya Sabha, 59-year-old B L Verma is an OBC leader who started off as an active party worker from Budaun in Uttar Pradesh. He became UP BJP vice-president in 2018 and as a member of the upper house of Parliament, he is in the Committee on Welfare of Other Backward Classes (OBCs). A first-time Union minister, Verma was earlier president of the Braj region unit of the saffron party. A prominent leader among the OBC communities, especially the Lodhi community in western UP, he is considered close to former chief minister Kalyan Singh. At present, Verma holds the post of the chairman of UP State Construction and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited, enjoying the rank and status of a minister of state.
Nishith Pramanik
The West Bengal politician joined BJP in 2019 and was formerly a member of Trinamool Congress (TMC). He became an MP from Cooch Behar in the 2019 general elections. In the recent meeting with PM Modi, Pramanik was also present with other leaders.
Pratima Bhoumik
A bio science graduate, Bhoumik has been with the saffron party for three decades. In 2019, she defeated Subal Bhowmik from Congress in 2019 from the West Tripura constituency by 3,05,689 votes.
Bharti Pawar
The first-term Lok Sabha MP for Maharashtra's Dindori was a doctor before she took the plunge into public service. She has an MBBS from Nashik's NDMVPS Medical College. She previously served as a Nashik Zila Parishad member.
Bhagwanth Khuba
The Bidar MP from Hyderabad belongs to the Lingayat community. The BJP, with the induction of Khuba, has signalled its intent to take on the Congress in its own stronghold.
SP Singh Baghel
A five-time MP, Satya Pal Singh Baghel currently represents Agra in the Lok Sabha as a BJP MP. A party-hopper, 61-year-old Baghel was a member of the Lok Sabha in 1998, 1999 and 2004 as a Samajwadi Party MP, representing the Jalesar seat in Uttar Pradesh. After three terms as an MP, Baghel was suspended from the SP. He then unsuccessfully contested two Lok Sabha elections as a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate. In 2014, Baghel was elected to the Rajya Sabha as a BSP nominee. Baghel became president of the BJP OBC Morcha in 2015 and two years later he became a BJP MLA from Tundla before getting elected to the Lok Sabha again, this time on a BJP ticket from Agra. This is his first stint as a central minister.
Subhas Sarkar
A seasoned war horse of the BJP in West Bengal, Bankura MP Subhas Sarkar has been the saffron party's organisation man in the state for long. On Wednesday, he found a berth in the Union Cabinet. He was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Bankura constituency in 2019, defeating Trinamool Congress (TMC) heavyweight and state Panchayat Minister Subrata Mukherjee. Sarkar, who was the vice-president of the West Bengal BJP from 2013, was a contender for the state party chief's post in 2015, but was made the general secretary instead.
An organisational man, Sarkar was made the vice-president of the saffron party's state unit again in 2017. After securing the third position in Bankura in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, Sarkar went on to win the seat five years later, increasing the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) vote share by nearly 29 per cent compared to the 20 percent it bagged in 2014. Born in 1953, Sarkar is a doctor by profession and a permanent resident of Bankura. He is also a member of the Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare as well as the Consultative Committee, Ministry of Power and Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.
John Barla
A tribal leader from the tea gardens of West Bengal, the Alipurduar MP has been in the news lately for demanding that a separate Union Territory be carved out of north Bengal. The 46-year-old was born in Jalpaiguri.
Promotions
- Anurag Thakur: The son of former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, the 46-year-old has been elected to Himachal Pradesh's Hamirpur constituency four times since 2008.
- Kiren Rijiju: The Union minister for Youth Affairs and Sports, who one of the BJP's faces in the North East, previously served as Minister of State for Home Affairs. The 49-year-old has been a Lok Sabha MP from Arunachal West since 2014.
- Parshottam Rupala: The 66-year-old is currently the Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare. He has been a Rajya Sabha member since 2016.
- RK Singh: The 68-year-old former IAF officer turned politician was a minister of state in the power ministry who contested and won from Bihar's Arrah in 2014.
- Hardeep Singh Puri: A career diplomat-turned-politician, Puri was elected unopposed in a bypoll to a Rajya Sabha seat from Uttar Pradesh in 2018. after the seat fell vacant following the resignation of Manohar Parrikar (who quit as defence minister after becoming the Goa chief minister). The Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs (Independent Charge) and Civil Aviation (Independent Charge) is 69.
- Mansukh L Mandaviya: In 2019, Mandaviya took charge of the Shipping Ministry Friday as Minister of State (Independent Charge). The 49-year-old was Minister of State for Road Transport, Highways; Chemical and Fertilisers and Shipping in the previous Narendra Modi-led government. Mandaviya, who hails from Bhavnagar district in Gujarat, is a businessman, agriculturist, political and social worker.
Allies
- Ram Chandra Pratap Singh - JD(U) The 63-year-old is the party's national president and a member of the Rajya Sabha from Bihar. Hailing from Nalanda district and belonging to the Kurmi caste, RCP, as he is often known, took oath of office as Union Cabinet minister on Wednesday. He entered Kumar’s good books in the late 1990s when the then Samata Party leader was the Union Railway minister and the Uttar Pradesh cadre IAS officer was on a central deputation.
- Pashupati Nath Paras - LJP: The brother of the late Ram Vilas Paswan, the Lok Janshakti Party MP recently staged a political coup and deposed nephew Chirag Paswan to become the party chief. A politician with more than four decades of experience, Pashupati spent the larger part of his career under the shadow of his late brother Ram Vilas Paswan
- Anupriya Patel - Apna Dal: The national president of the Apna Dal is from the Kurmi community. She was appointed a minister of state in the previous Modi government. She is the daughter of prominent Kurmi caste leader Sone Lal Patel, who was one of the lieutenants of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) founder Kanshiram.
With inputs from PTI
July 08, 2021 at 07:22AM
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