Union Cabinet/ Council of Ministers, India (2024- )
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The Council of Ministers
June 10, 2024: The Times of India
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From: June 10, 2024: The Times of India
There are 11 faces from UP in PM Modi’s newest council of ministers, the highest for any state. Bihar, Andhra, Gujarat each have 3 more ministers than they did last time while Maharashtra and Odisha saw their tally come down
New Delhi: Narendra Modi was sworn in as prime minister for the third time, equalling Jawaharlal Nehru’s record of three straight terms in the top office.
With 72 members including him, Modi’s latest team is bigger than the previous two, and, contrary to speculation, he had little difficulty in putting together the council of ministers despite leading a coalition govt. TDP and JD (U), in particular, chose not to haggle, as was generally expected after voters denied BJP an absolute majority.
Although portfolios have not been announced, the ease of ministry making is being seen as an indication that BJP may not have difficulty in retaining important ministries, not just home, defence, finance and external affairs, but also others crucial for ensuring continuity of policy trajectory.
The exercise was marked by the inclusion of experienced players, including four former CMs, but wasn’t marked by high-wattage exclusions. The govt has seven former CMs, including Modi, and four who have been BJP chiefs.
In terms of social composition, it carries forward the process of earmarking a progressively bigger share to “non-reserved” categories — SCs/STs and OBCs. The drop in stre- ngth of the “general category contingent” appears starker. It could partly be thanks to many heavyweights losing in UP and Bihar. But the messaging from lower upper caste representation is significant in view of losses BJP suffered because of the opposition’s allegation that it was out to scrap quotas.
It has not built upon the trend of progressively increasing the share of women in the cabinet, setting off a buzz about a likely compensation in the form of early action on women’s quota in legislatures. There are seven women in the council with Nirmala Sitharaman and Annapurna Devi, who got a promotion, designated cabinet ministers.
More striking, however, is the non-representation of Muslims; it is the first instance of a central govt taking office without any representative of the largest minority community on board.
Including the 30 members with cabinet rank, it is the largest council of ministers since 2014, the increase resulting from the need to accommodate 11 from among BJP allies.
J P Nadda, who will soon complete his tenure as BJP chief, made a comeback in govt, paving the way for an organisational recast. Nadda’s entry also meant that Anurag Thakur, MP from Hamirpur, missed out, but is likely to get a prominent party post. Dharmendra Pradhan’s inclusion in the Union cabinet for the third straight time is a confirmation that the party will look for a legislator from Odisha to be sworn in as chief minister on Monday. Pradhan had looked the obvious frontrunner for the post in Bhubaneswar. Apart from BJP’s Shivraj Chouhan and Manohar Lal, the govt boasts two other exCMs in H D Kumaraswamy (JDS) and Jitan Manjhi (HAM) to add to the bench strength.
The details
➤ 72 ministers (61 from BJP, 11 from allies), 31 Cabinet, 5 MoS with independent charge and 36 junior ministers
➤ 27 OBC, 10 SC, 5 ST, 4 minority, no Muslim
➤ 24 states represented. 18 ministers from North, 17 West, 15 East, 13 South, 6 Central and 3 NE
➤ Only 33 of 72 ministers from outgoing council back. 14 of outgoing ministers didn’t contest, 19 lost, 6 contested & won but dropped
➤ Average assets of ministers 107.9cr, up from 14.3cr in 2019, thanks largely to TDP’s Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani’s 5,705.5cr (almost 75% of total ministers’ assets)
➤ Average age is 58.8, a year younger than in 2019 (59.8)
➤ 7 women against 6 in 2019
➤ Ministers from RS: 11, LS: 58; 3 from neither House. 2019 council: 58 (11 RS, 45 LS)
➤ Kerala has 2 ministers but only 1 MP. No MP from TN but 1 minister. 3 of poll-bound Haryana’s 5 BJP MPs included
===Key Messages From Modi’s First Coalition Govt===
1 BJP IS BOSS: Short of a majority, needing allies, Modi chose to signal the new govt is still his govt, not one created by bargain-hunting allies. Not just the top cabinet jobs — home, finance, defence, foreign affairs — BJP will likely retain most heavyweight ministries.
2 ALLIES LOOK FOR GOVT FUNDS: One reason TDP and JDU didn’t push a hard bargain was that Naidu and Nitish decided fights with BJP over ministries weren’t worth it if in return they can extract more govt cash for their states, even if Bihar, Andhra don’t get special category status.
3 FEWER COALITION SHOCKS: At least to begin with, allies going along with BJP’s dominance of key jobs means the govt can function without too many disruptions and policy reversals typical of other coalition regimes.
4 EX-CMS ADD HEFT: Of course, PMO will call the shots. But the inclusion of six former chief ministers will bring administrative and policymaking experience to the council of ministers, especially since several of them have helmed big, complicated states.
5 EYE ON POLLS: Three states —Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand — face polls this year. Ministers from Haryana signal BJP intends to stay with the same social engineering formula that helped it build a non-Jat coalition. That Praful Patel’s comments on not taking up a ministerial post were made in the presence of BJP netas reflects NDA’s keenness to keep the Maharashtra alliance intact. And picks from Jharkhand point to BJP’s strategy of shoring up non-tribal groups.
6 ABSENT MUSLIMS: Modi’s third govt will begin with not a single Muslim minister. This may change later. But as of now, a council of ministers without any Muslims may be read by some in the context of the community’s near-total support for the opposition in the elections.
7 HELLO SUPER-RICH, HELLO HINDUS: That Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani were both among invitees shows Modi isn’t keeping these billionaires away just because the opposition made ‘crony capitalism’ a big campaign theme. And the sizeable presence of Hindu civil society groups means concessions, if any, on BJP’s core Hindutva agenda will be minor.
Individual profiles
June 10, 2024: The Times of India
June 10, 2024: The Times of India
AMIT SHAH | 59
EXPERIENCE: 2 LOK SABHA TERMS
He will be the BJP-led coalition’s second-most powerful minister, after Modi. Just as he was in the previous govt, when BJP governed with a full majority, and his portfolios were home and cooperatives. He is Modi’s closest confidant, and will be a key player in ally management. He comes into the Cabinet with a massive 7.4 lakh victory margin in Gandhinagar, his biggest win in a political career that began as a booth-level party worker in Gandhinagar 30 years ago. He was elected MLA several times in Gujarat and held ministerial posts in Modi’s state govt. As home minister, he helmed key policies such as abrogation of Article 370 for J&K. And as party president (2014-2020), he oversaw key BJP elections wins. That part of his job will become even more important as BJP, short of a single party majority nationally, and facing tough elections later this year, will need to change perceptions.
RAJNATH SINGH |72
EXPERIENCE: 4 LOK SABHA TERMS
Among BJP’s top 3 — Modi and Shah being the other two — he is widely acknowledged as his party’s amiable moderate, who is respected across party lines. A soft-spoken politician who worked his way up, he’s back in the Lok Sabha after a hat-trick from Lucknow. A former R S S activist, whose CV includes a stint as a lecturer in physics, he was a protégé of Vajpayee. His first election win was in 1977, to the UP assembly. This was followed by two stints as a Rajya Sabha member, 1994-1999 and 2003-2008. In between, he was UP’s chief minister, from 2000 to 2002. In the Vajpayee Cabinet, he was surface transport minister in 1999-2000 and agriculture minister in 2003-2004. In 2005, he was BJP’s national president. He followed it with another term as party chief that began in January 2013, and was replaced by Amit Shah in 2014. In the outgoing Cabinet, he was defence minister.
NITIN GADKARI | 67
EXPERIENCE: 3 LOK SABHA TERMS
He was BJP president from 2009 to 2013, and his win from Maharashtra’s Nagpur seat this time marks a hattrick. He has been the longest-serving road transport and highways minister in India, overseeing a key infrastructure ministry. In 2014, he was also shipping minister and had earlier been given responsibilities for water and MSMEs. Before moving to the Centre, he was a prominent BJP face in Maharashtra, where he earned his reputation as a doer when, as PWD minister, he was credited with major successes in building roads, highways and flyovers across the state. He’s known as much for his good equations with the R S S brass as for championing entrepreneurship and innovation.
S JAISHANKAR | 69
EXPERIENCE: 2 RAJYA SABHA TERMS
His induction in Modi’s second govt was a big surprise, a rare case of a non-politician getting a plum Cabinet post. As foreign minister in the outgoing govt, he’s known in world capitals as an effective articulator of Modi’s worldview.
He’s been credited with shaping India’s diplomatic responses to big challenges like China’s LAC adventurism, crossborder terrorism from Pakistan and instability at the border with Myanmar. He was also a key player in the four-nation IndoPacific strategy, through the Quad group. He was aggressive in his counters to western critics, who took issue with India’s decision to buy Russian oil after Putin invaded Ukraine. His calling out of what he saw as western ‘hypocrisy’ — his point being that the West was buying petro products refined from Russian crude — earned him brownie points with the domestic rightwing audience, who also found his two books, The India Way and Why Bharat Matters, right up their alley.
NIRMALA SITHARAMAN | 64
EXPERIENCE: 3 RAJYA SABHA TERMS
She was India’s first full-time woman defence minister. She followed it up with becoming the first woman to be finance minister. These two heavyweight jobs ensured her status as a senior member of Modi’s second govt. Her appointment as FM was met with some scepticism. But she retained Modi’s confidence till elections. She was tasked with implementing Modi’s approach to post-Covid economic policy, which was centred around relative fiscal conservatism. That India didn’t face the kind of inflationary pressure that many other major economies did burnished her credentials. India’s robust growth figures in recent times meant that she ended her tenure in the outgoing govt with GDP growing at 8.2%. As FM, she also had to preside over fractious GST council meetings with states. A JNU-alumna, she had worked in a consulting firm. She was MoS in Modi’s first term. She was also the party’s second woman spokesperson after Sushma Swaraj.
SHIVRAJ SINGH CHOUHAN | 65
EXPERIENCE: 6 LOK SABHA TERMS
Credited with turning around MP both politically, by turning Congress into a weak rival, and economically, by overseeing strong agricultural growth, he wasn’t happy when the party brass replaced him as MP CM after BJP’s win late last year. He had told TOI then that ‘sometimes when you are waiting for raj tilak (coronation) you get exiled’. He moves to the Centre for the first time, after a big win in Vidisha, and with a solid reputation as a good administrator and policy implementer. His long experience as CM should help him quickly get on with the new job as Cabinet minister, and his new remit should at least partially address his personal disappointment.
JP NADDA | 63
EXPERIENCE: 3 RAJYA SABHA TERMS
He has segued into an influential position at the Centre just before his extended tenure as BJP chief was to get over. His appointment as a party chief had also come as a surprise to many, but not so to some insiders who were familiar with his knack for landing key jobs. His profile in Delhi started growing when he was nominated for the Rajya Sabha a decade ago and was made party general secretary. A former ABVP functionary, he headed BYJM, BJP’s youth wing, and served as health and environment minister in his home state of Himachal Pradesh. Known to have a good equation with Modi, who he had known as party’s Himachal in-charge, he was health minister in Modi’s first govt.
PIYUSH GOYAL | 59
EXPERIENCE: 3 LOK SABHA TERMS
The chartered accountant’s ease with numbers is well known. His election to the Lok Sabha has added another dimension to the hyper-active minister who straddled diverse portfolios — from commerce and industry to food and consumer affairs and textiles. He was leader of the Rajya Sabha, BJP treasurer until not so long ago and had two short stints as officiating finance minister. Goyal, who handled power, coal and renewable energy during Modi’s first term, was known to set stiff targets and try out new ideas while juggling responsibilities, be it negotiating FTAs, or getting on a call with investors like Elon Musk or monitoring import and procurement of crucial food products since he was also part of the ministerial panel dealing with price rise. He comes from a family of R S S old timers — his mother was an MLA and his father was BJP treasurer.
MANOHAR LAL KHATTAR | 70
EXPERIENCE: 1 LOK SABHA TERM
His appointment as Haryana CM 10 years ago had surprised many, with even party insiders unaware that he would be picked ahead of several state heavyweights. He sprang another surprise by surviving nine years in the job in a state long associated with political intrigue and intra-party battles. This, when BJP didn’t have a majority of its own. Removed as CM just before LS polls, his appointment as a cabinet minister had looked certain from the day he was given the ticket for Karnal. He’s known Modi for a long time, since the latter had the job as party in-charge of the Haryana unit. He won’t be a non-player in Haryana. But as Cabinet minister, he won’t have the freedom of action he had as CM.
HD KUMARASWAMY | 65
EXPERIENCE: 3 LOK SABHA TERMS
His first entry into the Union Cabinet is preceded by a political career full of drama and controversies. Son of Gowda family patriarch HD Deve Dowda, he has been Karnataka CM twice, once with BJP support and once with Congress backing, and failed both times to complete his term. Post-JD(S)’s disastrous assembly election performance, he was written off as a politician. But this firm believer in ‘divine force’ proved everyone wrong when JD(S) won two of the three seats given to it by BJP in LS elections. That performance, and BJP’s need to shore up its Karnataka political base, got him into the Cabinet. Serious sexual harassment charges against his nephew Prajwal Revanna obviously haven’t affected him politically.
DHARMENDRA PRADHAN | 54
EXPERIENCE: 2 LOK SABHA TERMS
Elected to the Lok Sabha for the second time from Sambalpur, Odisha, he played a key role in BJP’s election standout performance in the state. He had held big portfolios like petroleum & natural gas and education in the two previous Modi govts. His importance grew in Modi’s govts appointed as MoS in 2014, he was promoted to cabinet rank in 2017. Known as the “Ujjwala Man”, he is credited with the initial success of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, through which over eight million LPG connections were provided to women below the poverty line. Later, he was tasked with implementing the National Education Policy 2020, a key Modi initiative. His remit included skill development, another crucial job, given the skills shortage in India’s young workforce. During his tenure, the number of Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) increased by over 40%, and student enrolment rose by over 28% until 2019.
JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA | 53
EXPERIENCE: 5 LOK SABHA TERMS
The Maharaja is flying again. Jyotiraditya Scindia, a minister in the outgoing Modi Cabinet with the hefty portfolio of civil aviation, is back as minister. But a crucial change is that this time he will be a minister as member of the Lok Sabha after registering a big victory from Guna in Madhya Pradesh. Scindia, a graduate of Harvard and Stanford, a confidant of Rahul Gandhi in Congress, joined BJP after he led a band of Congress MLAs in pulling the rug from under the Kamal Nath govt’s feet in Bhopal during the Covid pandemic. He was nominated to RS immediately, but waited for over a year to become a minister. As MP from Guna in 2004-14, he was minister in the Manmohan Singh govt and played a key role in the opposition benches under the first BJP govt. He moved on from Congress after his shock defeat in the 2019 polls.
ASHWINI VAISHNAW | 53
EXPERIENCE: 2 RAJYA SABHA TERMS
This civil servant-turned-corporate executive grabbed headlines when in a cabinet reshuffle in Modi’s second term, he was assigned not one but three high-profile ministries: communications, railways, and electronics and IT. His political goodwill in his home state, Odisha, ensured he had the support of both BJP and BJD when contesting as a Rajya Sabha candidate. One of the few ministers thought to have a ‘hotline with the PMO’, this Wharton MBA was Vajpayee’s private secretary. His job in the outgoing govt was to lead modernisation projects in the railways. Bande Bharat trains were the showpiece of this effort. His biggest challenge came after the terrible rail tragedy in Balasore, Odisha. He was credited with a quick response to the tragedy. His tough task in communications was reviving moribund state telcos, BSNL and MTNL, and his solution was a big financial aid package for both. India’s better performance as a mobile phone manufacturer and exporter also came under his watch.
BHUPENDER YADAV | 55
EXPERIENCE: 1 LOK SABHA TERM
Although a senior minister in the outgoing Modi govt, his first Lok Sabha win came in this election, from Alwar in Rajasthan. He held big portfolios, labour and environment, in Modi’s second govt. Known for his organisational skills, he had two full terms as a Rajya Sabha MP. In the party, his jobs included national secretary, in 2010, and national general secretary, in 2014. He was frequently appointed as election manager across states — Rajasthan (2013), and Jharkhand (2014), Bihar (2020) and MP (2023). Of his ministerial remits, environment was the bigger challenge as he represented India in three UN climate conferences, where his core job was to defend India’s stand that developing countries can’t be expected to carry the same responsibilities as rich countries.
RAJIV RANJAN (AKA LALAN SINGH) | 70
EXPERIENCE: 4 LOK SABHA TERMS
The senior JD(U) leader has been one of the closest confidants of CM Nitish Kumar for many years. Known to be a good strategist, he was instrumental in stitching up JD(U)-RJD alliance in 2022. Singh recently won Munger Lok Sabha seat for the third time. His previous victories from Munger seat came in 2009, 2019 and 2024, but when he lost in 2014, Nitish nominated him to Bihar Legislative Council under the Governor’s quota and made him minister for road construction in the then Jitan Ram Manjhi cabinet in June 2014. He has led JD(U) both at national and state levels, and belongs to the influential Bhumihar community.
RAM MOHAN NAIDU | 36
EXPERIENCE: 3 LOK SABHA TERMS
The 36-year-old, who studied engineering and did an MBA, is the youngest member of the Cabinet. The three-time Srikakulam MP entered politics in 2012 following the demise of his father, TDP leader Kinjarapu Yerran Naidu, who had served as Union minister. Initially drawn to a corporate career in Singapore, fate led him back to his roots in 2012. In 2014, he became the second youngest MP in the 16th Lok Sabha. Despite YSRCP’s landslide victory in the 2019 election, Ram Mohan was one of the three TDP MPs elected from Andhra. As national general secretary of TDP, he is a loyalist of Andhra CM-designate Nara Chandrababu Naidu (NCBN). During critical junctures, such as NCBN’s arrest in 2023, he played a pivotal role alongside TDP national secretary Nara Lokesh in Delhi.
KIREN RIJIJU | 53
EXPERIENCE: 4 LOK SABHA TERMS
A four-time MP from Arunachal West, he’s a BJP veteran and a Northeast politician who played a key role in building the party’s political base in the region. In the first Modi govt, he was appointed minister of state for home. His promotion as a Cabinet minister came midway in Modi’s second term. The high-profile law and justice ministry was his between 2021 and 2023. But following heated, and sometimes public, spats between GOI and Supreme Court, he was removed as law minister and put in charge of earth sciences. He was later given additional charge of food processing industries. During the poll campaign, he sparred with Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma over CAA and relocation of persecuted Buddhist Chakmas and Hindu Hajongs, who had migrated to India six decades ago.
MANSUKH MANDAVIYA | 51
EXPERIENCE: 1 LS, 2 RS TERMS
He came in via a Cabinet reshuffle in Modi’s second term. Though his public profile was mainly as health minister, his portfolios included such crucial ones as chemicals and fertilizers as well as ports, shipping and waterways. A Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat until early this year, he was fielded by BJP from the state’s Porbandar LS seat this time. His victory margin was 3.8 lakh votes. He started his political career with ABVP and was elected to the Gujarat assembly from the Palitana seat in 2002, becoming the youngest MLA in the state. He belongs to the Leuva Patidar subsect of the Patel community, which has a sizable presence in Saurashtra region of Gujarat, and is influential, both politically and socially.
PRALHAD JOSHI | 61
EXPERIENCE: 5 LOK SABHA TERMS
A second Cabinet term consolidates the status of the man who, while serving as parliamentary affairs minister, made India’s billion-tonne coal production dream come true and fired up the commercial mining auction process by fixing gaps in the system and addressing practical issues like improving supply. With BJP having a comfortable majority in the last LS, the soft-spoken fifth-term MP from Dharwad in Karnataka, a quintessential organisational man, did not have to use his man-management skills. But as coal minister, he succeeded in carrying along stakeholders, especially state govts, for speedy expansion of mining operations. His stewardship saw formulation of the policy on opening up exploration and production of critical minerals for private participation and launch of critical mineral block auction.
GIRIRAJ SINGH | 71
EXPERIENCE: 3 LOK SABHA TERMS
One of the most rhetorically aggressive ministers in Modi’s first two govts, his inclusion in the third cabinet was a certainty. He has been a vocal supporter of Modi from the time the latter moved to national politics. A three-time MP, he served as the minister for rural development and panchayati raj in Modi’s second term as PM. Before his shift to national politics, he was cooperative minister and animal husbandry minister for eight years in the Bihar govt headed by Nitish Kumar.
HARDEEP SINGH PURI | 72
EXPERIENCE: 2 LOK SABHA TERMS
A career diplomat-turned-politician, Hardeep Singh Puri has been a minister since Sep 2017 when he joined the Modi Cabinet as MoS (independent charge) for housing and urban affairs. On being promoted as a cabinet minister in the last govt, he got charge of petroleum and natural gas as well. Re-elected as a RS member from UP, Puri has adopted Sonbhadra district in the state. His representation in the Modi Cabinet is from UP. Though the 72-year-old popular Sikh face had tried his electoral luck from Amritsar in 2019, he could not win. Prior to his political stint, Puri as a diplomat for 39 years served in senior positions in external affairs and defence ministries. A 1974 batch Indian Foreign Service officer and resident of Delhi, he had served as permanent representative of India to the UN and was also chairman of the UN Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee.
CR PAATIL | 69
EXPERIENCE: 4 LOK SABHA TERMS
A police constable-turnedjournalist-turnedpolitician, he became Gujarat BJP’s first ‘non-Gujarati’ president in 2020. Under him, the saffron party has notched up spectacular electoral wins, right from local bodies to Lok Sabha. The four-time MP, known to be close to both PM Modi and Amit Shah, won Navsari seat in South Gujarat by 7.7 lakh votes, the highest victory margin in the state and one of the top five victory margins across the country. Recently, some BJP leaders, upset over the rise in Congress turncoats joining the party and getting preference over dedicated party functionaries, did question Paatil’s strategy. However, a robust performance ensured his inclusion. It also gives representation to South Gujarat region, where BJP won all parliamentary seats.
SARBANANDA SONOWAL | 62
EXPERIENCE: 3 LOK SABHA TERMS
His background as an influential tribal ensures his political viability — the reason why the former Rajya Sabha member won comfortably from Dibrugarh. This is his third term in the Cabinet. The former AGP leader also has the distinction of serving as BJP’s first chief minister of Assam. Though he was replaced in 2021, he was dignified in acquiescing to the turn of events. Few remember that it was on his petition that the Supreme Court passed the verdict for identification and deportation of infiltrators from Assam. Before moving to the state, he served as a minister of sports and youth affairs in the first term of Modi.
CHIRAG PASWAN | 42
EXPERIENCE: 3 LOK SABHA TERMS
This election saw him proving his mettle as a Dalit leader in his independent right. The sudden death of his father and founder of Lok Janshakti Party Ram Vilas Paswan in 2020 had sparked a crisis. He lost control of his party and its five MPs to his estranged uncle, who managed to persuade BJP to accept his claim to be the true inheritor of Paswan’s legacy. But Chirag, showing strength and sound judgement that few had associated with him until then, managed to convince BJP that he was Paswan’s legatee.
GAJENDRA SINGH SHEKHAWAT | 56
EXPERIENCE: 3 LOK SABHA TERMS
This three-time Jodhpur MP was a shoo-in for a Cabinet berth in Modi’s third govt. He started his political career as a student union president in Jodhpur in 1993. After two decades of working as an R S S man in Rajasthan’s border areas, he was asked to contest the Jodhpur LS seat in Dec 2013. Many in the state, including Vasundhara Raje, had opposed his candidacy. But he clearly had the backing of the party brass and was appointed MoS agriculture in 2017. He’s had his share of controversies.
ANNAPURNA DEVI | 55
EXPERIENCE: 2 LOK SABHA TERMS
Few switches have paid off as beautifully as hers. A prominent RJD face in Jharkhand, her career graph progressed rapidly after she crossed over to BJP in 2019. Her maiden victory from Koderma constituency, which is home to Jhumri Tilaiya, was followed by an MoS slot at the Centre. The victory this time came against a powerful rival and the disadvantage of incumbency, compounded by the surge in expectations triggered by her ministerial perch at the Centre. She defied widespread predictions of defeat to post a convincing victory. A full-scale Cabinet rank is confirmation that she has fit in well in BJP’s calculations for Jharkhand which goes to polls later that year. She was thrust into politics after the sudden death of her husband Ramesh Yadav, an RJD legislator, in 1998.
JUAL ORAM | 63
EXPERIENCE: 6 LOK SABHA TERMS
His stature in BJP owes much to both the importance of tribal vote and his impressive win record. He was re-elected to Lok Sabha for the sixth time, winning Odisha’s Sundargarh seat by more than 1.3 lakh votes. That record extends to assembly elections, Except in 2009, when former CM Hemananda Biswal defeated him in Sundargarh LS seat, Oram has won every election he’s contested since 1998. In 2014, he was BJP’s sole MP from the state. One of five siblings in a poor tribal family, his early experiences with poverty shaped his politics. But his first job was as an assistant foreman at BHEL. His political innings started in 1990. Just nine years later, Vajpayee appointed him as India’s first Union minister for tribal affairs. In the outgoing Lok Sabha, he chaired the parliamentary committee on defence.
G KISHAN REDDY | 63
EXPERIENCE: 2 LOK SABHA TERMS
He was tourism minister in Modi’s second govt, and is a prominent BJP figure in Telangana. Affectionately known as Kishan anna, he was the party’s first state chief after the creation of Telangana, and had seen BJP grow from virtually nothing to a major force in LS elections in the state. His CV includes stints as Yuva Morcha national chief, chief of the BJP unit in undivided Andhra, and the party’s legislative leader. He had undertaken a 22-day Telangana “Poru Yatra”– a 3,500-kilometre (2,200 mi) journey through 986 villages and 88 assembly constituencies before the state was born. The second-time MP from Secunderabad is a veteran of state politics, having served three terms in the assembly.
JITAN RAM MANJHI | 78
EXPERIENCE: 1 LOK SABHA TERMS
He’s the only Cabinet minister who’s also the sole MP of his party, Hindustan Awam Morcha. He made headlines both when he was picked by Nitish Kumar to be Bihar CM and when he lost that job. Politically, though, he emerged stronger thanks to mobilisation of Musahars, the most marginalised of Bihar’s Dalit groups. Both BJP and RJD had wooed him prior to LS elections and his siding with the former positively impacted NDA’s Bihar performance. Musahars see him as their voice, discounting charges of nepotism against him. He is known for his outspokenness and for his frank and unabashed transactional politics.
VIRENDRA KUMAR | 70
EXPERIENCE: 8 LOK SABHA TERMS
He was Cabinet minister for social justice and empowerment in the last govt, and this LS win was his eighth. He was pro-tem Speaker in the Lok Sabha from June 17, 2019 to June 19, 2019. A Dalit leader from the Bundelkhand region in MP, he was appointed MoS for minority affairs and women and child development in September 2017. Later, during the Cabinet expansion of July 2021, Kumar was elevated to Cabinet rank. His political career began with ABVP, from where graduated to BJP’s youth wing.
INDEPENDENT CHARGE
RAO INDERJIT SINGH | 74
EXPERIENCE: 6 LOK SABHA TERMS
This is his third central stint. MoS (planning) in Modi 2.0, Singh is returning to Parliament as an MP from Gurgaon for the sixth time. The DU law grad, who cut his teeth in state politics with Congress, is former CM Rao Birender Singh’s son and the most influential politician in the Ahirwal region of south Haryana. He didn’t hold back on his disagreements with the state leadership of BJP when Manohar Lal Khattar was CM, but has been fully aligned with the PM.
JITENDRA SINGH | 67
EXPERIENCE: 3 LOK SABHA TERMS
Three wins from Udhampur and a minister each time, the soft-spoken diabetologist from Jammu is getting a leg up – from MoS to the Modi Cabinet. He has previously been a minister in the PMO, and was minister for science and technology during the successful Chandrayaan mission. He has also served as MoS personnel, overseeing initiatives like Mission Karmayogi to enhance govt-citizen interaction.
ARJUN RAM MEGHWAL | 70
EXPERIENCE: 4 LOK SABHA TERMS
The former Rajasthan administrative services officer (promoted to IAS) and BJP’s Dalit face in Rajasthan, the genial politician – conspicuous for his vibrant turbans and riding a cycle to Parliament – won a tight race to become MP for the fourth straight term from Bikaner. He is known to have won the PM’s confidence for his ability to reach out to opposition parties to ensure passage of bills. In Modi’s first two terms as PM, Meghwal served as MoS corporate affairs, parliamentary affairs, tourism, culture and law.
JAYANT CHAUDHARY | 45
EXPERIENCE: 1 RAJYA SABHA TERM
The young Jat neta who has been struggling for a toehold makes it to the Modi Cabinet as a crucial NDA ally in UP, where the tide turned against BJP in the LS polls. RLD won both seats it contested, Baghpat and Bijnor, paving the way for Jayant’s elevation. Son of RLD founder Ajit Singh and grandson of Chaudhary Charan Singh, Jayant was born in the US and graduated from London School of Economics. He contested the UP assembly poll in 2022 as a Samajwadi ally but moved to the BJP camp.
PRATAPRAO JADHAV | 63
EXPERIENCE: 4 LOK SABHA TERMS
The four-time MP from Buldhana in Vidarbha who chose Eknath Shinde’s side when Shiv Sena split moves straight to the Cabinet after being part of several parliamentary committees and heading standing committees. Sena’s Shinde group is now a crucial NDA ally from Maharashtra, another state where BJP performed poorly in the LS polls. Having been an MLA three times, Jadhav understands grassroots politics in the region.
