Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Mansukh Mandaviya has been handed the Ministries of Labour and Employment and of Youth Affairs and Sports in the Modi Cabinet 3.0.
Mandaviya served as the Minister of Health and Family Welfare and Chemicals and Fertilizers of India in his previous term as the Union Minister. The 52-year-old BJP leader takes over the Sports Ministry from Anurag Thakur, who served in the post from July 2021 onwards. Mandaviya takes the Labour and Employment ministry from Bhupendra Yadav.
Mandaviya won the Lok Sabha 2024 Elections from the Porbandar seat in Gujarat. He was pitted against Congress leader Lalit Vasoya from the seat and won by a margin of 383360 votes. Mandaviya held the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and chemicals and fertilizers recently. He was made the Union Minister in July 2021, at the time when India was still battling against the COVID-19 pandemic.
The BJP leader has been a Rajya Sabha member for two terms. He was elected into the upper house of the Indian parliament in 2012 and then re-elected in 2018. Mandaviya's political career dates back to his youth time. He had joined the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the RSS' student wing, and had become the state executive committee member of the ABVP's Gujarat unit.
His first big responsibility came to him when he was appointed the chairman of Gujarat Agro Industries Corporation Limited when Narendra Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat.
In May 2019, he was named the MoS for Chemicals and Fertilisers with an independent charge of Ports, Shipping and Waterways.
Mandaviya's appointment comes at the time when the Indian athletes are set to compete in the upcoming Paris Olympics in July and August 2024. Anurag Thakur is the outgoing Sports Minister who served in the office from July 2021 until the new cabinet formation. Under him, India participated in the Tokyo Olympics 2021 and then had a record success at the Asian Games 2023 with 107 medals. This was India's best performance at the Asian Games, in terms of medal tally, surpassing the previous highest of 70 medals, the nation won in 2018.
