Modi Sarkar's much-awaited Cabinet expansion finally took place after months of anticipation and rumours doing the rounds. With the UP elections in the offing, the move comes as a cry for reform.
The reshuffle took place at the Rashtrapati Bhavan with Modi Sarkar inducting 19 new faces as ministers of state. All new ministers are from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party except for Ramdas Athavale and Anupriya Patel. Top four ministries; the Home, Finance, Defence, and External Affairs, remained untouched. Modi didn't shy away from mixing things up, including Dalit and OBC leaders in ministerial positions.
Bird's Eye View of the new Cabinet
Prakash Javadekar
The lone Minister of State in the government to be elevated to Cabinet rank, the ceremony started off with Prakash Javadekar administering the oath in the presence of President Pranab Mukherjee. He was the BJP spokesperson and party in-charge of Andhra Pradesh during his inclusion, and was instrumental in striking a deal with Chandrababu Naidu's TDP.
Arjun Ram Meghwal
Bureaucrat-turned-politician, Arjun Ram Meghwal is known for his active participation in Lok Sabha debates on a variety of issues. The dalit leader had recently attacked the judiciary for its "extra constitutional" activism, and demanded that the "running commentary" by judges should end. He has been a member of different parliamentary committees including on defence, science and technology, environment and forest, personnel, public grievances, law and justice.
P P Chaudhary
After working as a senior advocate in the Supreme Court, Chaudhary was given a ticket from Pali, Rajasthan, by the BJP, and won the seat in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. He has handled cases relating to farmers, land acquisition, as well as public interest litigations. He was part of the Joint Committee of Parliament that inquired into the Land Acquisition Bill brought in by the NDA. He has been elected for three years as Member of the International Executive Committee, and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, London.
Ajay Tamta
Induction of Tamta, dalit leader from Uttarakhand, comes right when BJP puts its focus on dalit and backward communities in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand where the polls are due soon. He is a member of the Standing Committee on Human Resource Development, Consultative Committee in the Ministry of Water Resources, and River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.
Mahendra Nath Pandey
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, and in 1997, became the Minister of State for Housing and Urban Development and was the MoS Planning between 1998 and 2000. Pandey is currently member of the Business Advisory Committee and the Committee of Parliament on Official Language.
Rajen Gohain
The four-time BJP MP from Assam was first elected to Lok Sabha in 1999 from Nagaon. Member of the Ahom community, his inclusion is seen as the NDA's attempt to poke into the society that consists largely of Congress supporters. "I will try my level best to serve the people of Assam. I request the people of Assam to be with me in this journey," he said. Gohain is the leading figure in the state's fight for the cause of small tea garden owners.
Krishna Raj
First time BJP MP and one of the party's Dalit faces from Uttar Pradesh, Krishna has been an active member of the Committee on Petitions, Standing Committee on Energy, Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water and Sanitation.
Subhash Bhamre
Oncologist and first-time MP, Subhash Bhamre is seen as a compensation for the exit of Raosaheb Danve, from Maharashtra. He is known for helping the financially weak cancer patients, and conducting free multiple medical camps and surgeries. Bhamre has also organised public education speeches for cancer awareness and its early detection and prevention. He is a member of the Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Railways, and the Committee on Welfare of Other Backward Classes.
Parshottam Khodabhai Rupala
A well-known Modi-loyalist, and member of Kadva Patidar community, Rupala is among those who offered kar seva at the disputed Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya, in 1989. His name comes up at a time when the Gujarat state BJP faces flak from the Patel community for reservation. He was elected MLA thrice and held various positions in the state government. He also held the position of national vice-president of the party in 2010 and was in-charge of states like Andhra Pradesh and Goa in the past.
Jaswantsinh Bhabhor
A native of Dahod, and a popular tribal leader of central Gujarat, Bhabhor served as deputy minister of Food & Civil Supply between 1999 and 2001 in the state government. He later on served as minister of state for health and family welfare, forests and environmental tribal development, rural development, panchayats and labour and employment during different periods till 2012. Bhabhor is known to keep a low-profile and considered to be an accessible leader.
Mansukh Mandaviya
Apparently being groomed by the BJP as the "next generation leader", the 44 year old started off as a student leader of ABVP. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat in 2012, where he was also the Member of Committee on Petroleum and Natural Gas, National Welfare Board for Seafarers, and Member of a Committee on Chemicals and Fertilisers. He has served as a spokesperson of Gujarat BJP and is a state party executive member.
C R Chaudhary
The 68-year-old Nagaur MP is a Jat leader from Rajasthan. Chaudhary became member and later Chairman of the Rajasthan Public Service Commission. He is also an honorary Chairman of Veer Teja Mahila Shiksahn and Shodh Sansthan Marwar-Mundwa in Nagaur.
Anupriya Patel
A first time MP, Patel is an eloquent pro-Modi voice within and outside the Lok Sabha whose OBC roots have made her 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.
Anil Madhav Dave
From Barnagar, Ujjain, in Madhya Pradesh, Dave has been a member of the Upper House of Parliament, along with being a member of the Committee on Water Resources, member of the Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
M J Akbar
An articulate and modern Muslim voice in the BJP, 65-year old Akbar was recently elected to the Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh.
S. S. Ahluwalia
From being a minister in the P V Narasimha Rao Cabinet to a 'research scholar' for BJP, Surendrajeet Singh Ahluwalia has links across different parties. The Patna-based politician is known for taking stand, at times, contrary to the party's.
Fagan Singh Kulaste
Representing the Mandla constituency of Madhya Pradesh, Kulaste’s name had figured in the 2008 cash-for-vote scandal. He was jailed for two months over a sting operation exposing what was called the cash-for-vote before the trust vote of the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government in 2008. However, he was acquitted by a Delhi court.
Vijay 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.
Ramdas Athawale
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 speeches in the Parliament. Calling himself "the fearless panther of India", the 56-year-old leader claims to have led the 'Dalit Panther Movement', a social movement for equality, justice and human rights world-wide.
