 "Meet Narendra Modi's new council of ministers")
The Narendra Modi government made the first major expansion and restructuring of its council of ministers on Sunday, six months after taking charge. Here is the list of Modi's new ministers and everything that you need to know about them.
There was a time when Shiv Sena patriarch, the late Bal Thackeray, would consult an intelligent chartered accountant-cum-lawyer for independent views on important policy decisions pertaining to various topics.
There was a time when Shiv Sena patriarch, the late Bal Thackeray, would consult an intelligent chartered accountant-cum-lawyer for independent views on important policy decisions pertaining to various topics.
Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, 57, was later awarded with Lok Sabha tickets by the impressed Thackeray, which was the start to his political career.
Considered close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he was recently head of a high-level Advisory Group for Integrated Development of Power, Coal and Renewable Energy for reforms in the power sector, and is working on or is a member of over a dozen major international organisations and panels.
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Amidst all this, Prabhu has found time to indulge in some more academics - pursuing two doctorates simultaneously, one on Public Finance from Mumbai University and the other from Berlin University on Climate Change.
Prabhu is married to media person Uma, and the couple has a son Ameya. The family mostly lives in Mumbai.
For Hansraj Ahir, BJP's forth-time Lok Sabha member from Chandrapur in Maharashtra, induction into the Narendra Modi led cabinet is no less than a birthday gift.
Ahir turns 59 on November 11.
The BJP stalwart from Vidarbha had jumped into limelight due to his revelations on the multi-crore coal mining scam.
Ahir claims that environment protection is his passion. He was appointed as the chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee on coal and steel in the 16th Lok Sabha.
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, a prominent Muslim face of the BJP, staged a comeback to the Union Council of Ministers, 15 years after his stint as MoS Information and Broadcasting in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.
A two-time Rajya Sabha member, Naqvi, 57, is one of the Vice-Presidents of the BJP and has been a spokesperson of the party for a long time.
Married to Seema, a Hindu, Naqvi had participated in social, political activities and student's youth movements. He was detained at Naini Central Jail under Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) at the age of 17 during the Emergency in 1975.
He has been actively involved and associated with several socio-cultural and academic activities including upliftment of artisans and spread of public awerness in remote villages by way of chaupals to promote art and culture.
Naqvi has authored three books: Syah (1991), Danga (1998) and Vaisali (2007).
A master-strategist and a trusted lieutenant of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as BJP President Amit Shah, Jagat Prakash Nadda's entry into the Government is a vindication of his efficiency and dependability who prefers to work behind the scenes.
A prominent student leader during his college days, mild-mannered Nadda, 53, known as a tough task master, was a strong contender for the post of BJP President but extended full support to Shah after losing out on the race earlier this year.
Nadda is seen as a member of the most powerful troika along with Modi and Shah. He is known to be part of all major decision making processes in the party and is likely to be the bridge between the party and the government.
He also enjoys support from the RSS and has good equations with all prominent leaders of the BJP.
The private equity industry in India, which is waiting for a revival with 'Modi magic,' has reason to cheer. A leading private equity fund manager has been sworn into the Modi ministry on Sunday's cabinet expansion.
Jayant Sinha, son of former finance minister Yashwant Sinha, got appointed on Sunday with a cabinet berth.
Jayant Sinha, former India head of Omidyar Network, had defeated three-time Congress MLA Saurabh Narain Singh by a margin of 1,59,000 votes from Hazaribagh constituency in Jharkhand in this year's general elections. Yashwant Sinha had vacated Hazaribagh constituency in favour of his elder son - Jayant.
Jayant, graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, studied at Harvard Business School, has worked with consulting firm McKinsey & Co before joining the Omidyar Network, an investment firm established by eBay co-founder Pierre Omidyar.
A prominent leader of the saffron party in undivided Andhra Pradesh, Bandaru Dattatreya rose through the ranks from being a full-time RSS pracharak to become the lone representative of the new state of Telangana in the Union Cabinet.
The four-time MP from Secunderabad, Dattatreya earlier served as the Union Minister of State for Urban Development, Poverty Alleviation and Railways in the A B Vajpayee Cabinet during 1998-99 and 2000-04.
Dattatreya held Independent charge of the Urban Development Ministry from 2003 to 2004 and was member of Lok Sabh from 1991 to 1996, 1998-99 and 1999-2004.
However, he had lost the 2004 and 2009 Lok Sabha elections.
The proverbial slip between cup and lip had haunted Haryana Jat leader Birender Singh who first lost to Bhupinder Singh Hooda in the battle for Haryana Chief Minister's chair in 2004 and was then denied a Cabinet berth in Manmohan Singh government in 2010 at the last minute.
And now, his induction as a Cabinet minister in the Modi government marks a rare happy turn in his long career where he was forced to live in the shadows of rival Jat leaders like Hooda and National Lok Dal's O P Chautala.
Singh took a big gamble before Haryana Assembly elections by ending his over four-decade association with Congress to join BJP and it paid off as the saffron party stormed to power in the state and his wife also got elected as an MLA.
BJP believes Singh's entry in the government will bring Jats closer to it in a state where they are the most numerous and influential community.
Bollywood's singing sensation Babul Supriyo, who hails from West Bengal, Sunday joined Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers.
From being nominated for the tough Asansol cosntituency in West Bengal, where the BJP has been traditionally weak, to pulling off a surprise win, and now getting a berth in the Narendra Modi ministry - it has been a meteoric rise for Supriyo, who turns 44 next month.
Supriyo became one of the two BJP MPs from the state in 2014, but his victory was all the more creditworthy as it was the first time that the party had succeeded in the Lok Sabha polls by fighting on its own strength in the state. The other triumphant candidate S S Ahluwalia won from Darjeeling, but with the backing of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha.
Supriyo, who holds a B.Com. (Honours) degree from Calcutta University, becomes the third BJP minister from the eastern state after Tapan Sikdar and Satyabrata Mukherjee.
The BJP MP from Fatehpur constituency in Uttar Pradesh, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti may not be a modern woman but being a sadhvi and hailing from a backward caste Sunday earned her a berth in the Prime Minister Narendra Modi cabinet.
A 'nishad' by birth, she was elected as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator from Hamirpur constituency in 2012.
Known to be a fighter, she wears saffron robes, sports a big tilak on her forehead and is known for her speeches laced with Hindu scriptures and hymns. The 47-year-old won from the Fatehpur constituency in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
Having excelled in shooting ranges, ace marksman Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore has now hit target in the political arena as well, getting a berth in the Narendra Modi government today as a Minister of State in his maiden stint as an MP.
43-year-old Rathore, who rose to fame when he won a silver medal in the 2004 Olympics in Athens finishing second in the double trap shooting event, made a successful transition to politics, winning the Lok Sabha polls from Jaipur Rural constituency earlier this year.
He had decided to take a shot at politics last September when he joined BJP after taking voluntary retirement from the army as a Colonel.
Manohar Parrikar - Defence Minister A metallurgical engineer from Indian Institute of Technology, Parrikar was chief minister of Goa and stands out for an unpretentious style. He was the architect of an entity forged with Christians ahead of the 2012 Assembly elections after he realised the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would never have a chance of forming a government in Goa unless it reached out to the minority community.
At the same time, when the leader of the Sri Ram Sene, Pramod Muthalik, tried to expand his activities from Mangaluru to Goa, Parrikar came down hard on him and virtually outlawed him from the state, despite the fact that Muthalik had by then joined BJP. Muthalik is now banned from entering Goa.
He is frank and criticised the decision to ban iron ore mining in Goa, later lauding the Supreme Court for lifting it. Goa’s business community was forthright in welcoming his appointment as chief minister and hailing him as a man who understands business and entrepreneurship. He is known for integrity and simplicity in his personal style.
The absence of a Jat leader in the council of ministers, despite the fact that Jats in Western Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana backed BJP substantially, turning their backs on traditional leaders such as Ajit Singh is one reason for Sanwar Lal Jat’s inclusion in the government. Jat defeated Sachin Pilot in Ajmer by a margin of 175,000 votes.
He is considered close to Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and, although he was water resources minister in her government when the Lok Sabha elections were held, she asked him to quit his position as an MLA and contest the Lok Sabha elections, assuring him he would be elevated to a Central minister. That did not happen in Narendra Modi’s first round of expansion of council of ministers. He has been a minister thrice in the state government.
Singh belongs to the powerful Bhumihar caste and was a minister in the Janata Dal-BJP coalition government cabinet for eight years. Even as a minister, he never missed a chance to criticise then Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar.
At the height of the Nitish-(Narendra) Modi proxy war, Singh chose to side with the latter. This, perhaps, earned him a
ministerial berth in the council of ministers on Sunday.
Loyalty to the leader aside, Giriraj is known for a series of controversial statements. His alleged exhortation to voters during Lok Sabha campaign that they should either vote for Modi-led BJP or go to Pakistan invited a lot of criticism. BJP had to maintain a distance from his statement.
Experts feel his induction in the council of ministers is an attempt to please the Bhumihars, who, though numerically not so large, wield considerable influence in Bihar politics. In recent years, the Nawada MP has emerged as a strong votary of aggressive Hindutva politics.