Cabinet expansion: Meet the 19 new ‘doers and achievers’ of Narendra Modi government
The new ministers have been chosen after an exhaustive vetting process based on a selection framework from the Prime Minister.
New Delhi: The long-awaited expansion and reshuffle of the Union Cabinet took place today at the Rashtrapati Bhavan with the induction of 19 new ministers in the Narendra Modi government.
The new ministers have been chosen after an exhaustive vetting process based on a selection framework from the Prime Minister. He wanted "doers and performers" who can "deliver on his vision of development and priorities - gaon garib and kisan.
Here’s a quick glance at all the 19 ministers who have joined Narendra Modi to bring Achhe Din for India:
Vjay Goel:
Vijay Goel's inclusion in the Union Council of Ministers marks a comeback of sorts for the leader after BJP virtually removed him from Delhi, where he once hoped to be the chief ministerial face, and sent him to the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan.
The three-time Lok Sabha MP, who was a minister in the PMO in the first NDA government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee, remained a prominent party leader in the national capital before being sidelined in the last two Assembly polls.
The 62-year-old leader entered the Rajya Sabha for the first time in 2014.
Prakash Javadekar:
Prakash Javadekar, the lone Minister of State in the Modi government to have been elevated to Cabinet rank, has been rewarded for his work in the Environment Ministry, especially his pro-active role in the climate change talks in Paris.
It has been a turnaround for Javadekar, who was earlier stripped of the charge of two key departments of Information and Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs as a Minister of State.
He was included in the Council of Ministers even when he was not an MP and was given the charge of three key departments - Independent charge of Environment Ministry and Information and Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs.
A former banker, Javadekar (65) was a member of the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the students wing of the RSS.
Ramdas Athawale:
Known for his comic sense, Athawale is a prominent Dalit leader from Maharashtra whose induction into the Modi government is part of BJP's endeavour to reach out to the politically crucial segment ahead of elections to five states including Uttar Pradesh.
Athawale, who heads the Republican Party of India (Athawale), an NDA ally, has been a trade unionist and is known more for his blunt remarks and popular laughter-evoking speeches in Parliament and outside. He has been part of NDA since 2011 after he quit the NCP-Congress alliance. He currently represents Maharashtra in the Rajya Sabha and has been a three-time Lok Sabha member.
M J Akbar:
M J Akbar's debut as a minister caps a remarkable political turnaround for the journalist and author who made a dashing foray into politics as a Congress MP in 1989, thanks to his proximity to the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, before a long spell in wilderness.
65-year-old Akbar, who was recently elected to Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh, is seen as an articulate and modern Muslim voice in BJP who can also be trusted to defend it at times on the strident Hindutva pitch with his eloquent evocation of Modi's developmental agenda.
A party spokesperson, he has often spoken on the government's foreign policies.
Surendrajeet Singh Ahluwalia:
From being a minister in the P V Narasimha Rao Cabinet to a 'research scholar' for BJP on various key legislations, Surendrajeet Singh Ahluwalia has links cutting across party lines and is known to speak his mind.
The Patna-based politician is known for taking a stand which at times is contrary to the party's position.
A member of the Lok Sabha from Darjeeling, Ahluwalia was previously a Member of Parliament representing Bihar and Jharkhand in the Rajya Sabha in 1986-1992, 1992-1998, 2000.
Faggan Singh Kulaste:
Faggan Singh Kulaste, Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Mandla (Scheduled Tribes) reserved constituency in Madhya Pradesh, belongs to the class of politicians who have struggled hard to survive in politics.
Born in 1959, the 57-year-old lawmaker, was on Tuesday sworn-in as Minister of State in the Union council of ministers.
In October 1999, Kulaste as Lok Sabha member was inducted as Minister of State Parliamentary Affairs in the Atal Behari Vajpayee government but later was moved as Minister of State for Tribal Affairs.
Arjun Ram Meghwal:
Known for his penchant for pedalling to Parliament, the bureaucrat-turned-politician Arjun Ram Meghwal is the chief whip of BJP in Lok Sabha
Born into family of weavers in Kishmidesar village of Bikaner district, he began his career as a telephone operator while pursuing LLB and got into the Rajasthan Civil Services after two failed attempts.
He was later promoted to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS).
A two-time MP, the 61-year-old was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 2009 from Bikaner constituency.
P P Chaudhary:
From ploughing the fields to being a lawmaker, P P Chaudhary, after cutting his teeth in the RSS, has now been propelled to the centre stage of politics with his induction in the Union Council of Ministers.
Born in a poor farmer family in Bhavi in Jodhpur district of Rajasthan, 62-year-old Chaudhary joined the RSS when he was eight years old as a 'Bal Swayamsevak' in 1961. He worked hard to study law and went on to become a senior advocate of the Supreme Court.
He was given a ticket by the BJP from Pali in Rajasthan and won the seat in 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
He was part of the Joint Committee of Parliament that looked into the contentious Land Acquisition bill brought in by NDA and later abandoned it.
Ajay Tamta:
From an obscure Panchayat functionary to a Union Minister, Ajay Tamta has certainly covered a long distance.
Tamta, who would turn 44 on July 16, cut his teeth in politics as a member of district panchayat in his home state Uttarakhand and rose to become its vice president.
A first-term member of the Lok Sabha, Tamta is a member of the Standing Committee on Human Resource Development (HRD) as also of the Consultative Committee in the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation. He was earlier a member of the Committee on Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
Earlier he was a minister in his home state between 2007 and 2009. He had contested state assembly polls in 2002 as an independent but lost. Tamta tried his luck at the hustings again in 2007 and won on BJP ticket.
Mahendra Nath Pandey:
He is one of the BJP's Brahmin faces in Uttar Pradesh, where it is going the whole hog to win after being out of power for a decade-and-a-half.
Pandey, a first-time Lok Sabha member, is an MP from Chandauli bordering Bihar.
The 58-year-old leader is a two-time MLA and was elected to the UP Legislative Assembly in 1991 and 1996. He was the secretary of the BJP legislature party.
In 1997, Pandey became Minister of State for Housing and Urban Development and was the MoS Planning (Independent charge) between 1998 and 2000. He was also the MoS Panchayati Raj in UP between 2000 and 2002.
Pandey is currently a member of the Business Advisory Committee and the Committee of Parliament on Official Language.
Rajen Gohain:
The four-time BJP MP from Assam is a known champion for the cause of small tea growers in the Northeastern state.
Gohain, 65, who was first elected to Lok Sabha in 1999 from Nagaon, is a law graduate and was actively involved in the six-year-long Assam agitation against illegal immigrants in early 1980s.
Despite Nagaon being a minority dominated constituency, Gohain was elected to the Lower House for four consecutive term.
Krishna Raj:
She is a first time BJP MP and one of the party's Dalit faces from Uttar Pradesh.
The 49-year-old had been a member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly in 1996 and 2007 from Mohamadi.
She was elected in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Shahjahanpur seat. A post-graduate, she is active in the Lok Sabha and has participated in 50 debates on a variety of issues, including on water preservation, safety of women and Supreme Court's decision on ban of diesel taxis in Delhi.
She belongs to the Rohilkhand region of the state and her inclusion in the expanded NDA ministry will give more teeth to the saffron party among Scheduled Caste Pasi electorate.
Subhash Bhamre:
An oncologist and a first-time MP, Subhash Bhamre's induction into the Union Ministry is being seen as the Modi government's attempt to compensate Maharashtra for the exit of Raosaheb Danve, who resigned after being appointed the president of BJP's state unit.
Bhamre, born on September 11, 1953, defeated Amrish Patel of Congress to enter the Lok Sabha in 2014 elections from the Dhule constituency, bordering Gujarat. His constituency adjoins Jalgoan, the home turf of Khadse.
The 63-year-old BJP MP is a Member of the Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare and also a Member of the Consultative Committee, Ministry of Railways. He is also member of the Committee on Welfare of Other Backward Classes.
Parshottam Khodabhai Rupala:
A grassroots political worker, he is a known Modi-loyalist and belongs to Kadva Patidar community in Gujarat.
A two-term Rajya Sabha MP, the Patel leader is a science graduate whe began his career as a school teacher in Gujarat and became principal of two schools and the chief officer of a civic body before joining politics.
Rising steadily through the ranks, Rupala became BJP state secretary and went on to serve as a minister when Narendra Modi was Gujarat Chief Minister.
He was first elected to Rajya Sabha in 2008 and then again in June 2016 and is known for his high-decibel interventions in the Upper House.
Jaswantsinh Bhabhor:
The 49-year-old parliamentarian from Dahod is a popular tribal leader of central Gujarat known for an impeccable image, low-key style and accessible nature.
Before entering into politics in mid 90s, Bhabhor served as a teacher in government school. His father Sumanbhai Bhabhor was also in BJP but could not win any Assembly poll.
Born in August 1966, Bhabhor became an MLA for the first time in 1995.
Mansukh Mandaviya:
The 44-year-old is apparently being groomed by the BJP as the "next generation leader" from the Patel community in Gujarat.
He was a student leader of ABVP and was elected as an MLA in the Gujarat Assembly in 2002.
In 2012, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat, where he had been member of Committee on Petroleum and Natural Gas, National Welfare Board for Seafarers and also Member of a Committee on Chemicals and Fertilizers.
He has also served as a spokesperson of Gujarat BJP and is a party state executive member.
C R Chaudhary:
The 68-year-old Nagaur MP is a Jat leader from Rajasthan.
Born in Dhandhlas village in Nagaur, he was an officer of Rajasthan Administrative Service before joining politics.
Chaudhary became member and later Chairman of the Rajasthan Public Service Commission.
He is also an honrary Chairman of Veer Teja Mahila Shiksahn and Shodh Sansthan Marwar-Mundwa in Nagaur.
Anupriya Patel:
Anupriya Patel, a first time MP, is an eloquent pro-Modi voice within and outside the Lok Sabha whose OBC roots have positioned her as an important BJP ally in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh.
The 35-year-old Lok Sabha member from Mirzapur in UP won on the ticket of Apna Dal, a party founded by her father and Kurmi leader Sonelal Patel which later split, with the major faction siding with her mother, who expelled her from the party.
A Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi, pass out, she was elected an MLA in 2012 and then entered the Lok Sabha two years later. Anupriya also has Master's degrees in Psychology and Business Administration.
Anupriya was earlier an MLA from Rohaniya constituency in Varanasi.
Ramesh Chandappa Jigjinagi:
A Dalit leader and Lok Sabha MP from Bijapur, Karnataka, Ramesh Chandappa Jigjinagi has been elected to the Lok Sabha as many as five times.
He was recommended for ministerial berth by the Karnataka BJP after the 2014 Lok Sabha election.
(With agencies inputs)