Here are some of the profiles of ministers of state:
KIREN RIJIJU: A long-time member of the BJP from the frontier state of Arunachal Pradesh, Kiren Rijiju has performed in the Narendra Modi government in different roles, be it handling various internal security situation, natural calamities or facing opposition in Parliament when Home Ministry related questions are discussed.
The services of the 48-year-old law graduate from Delhi University was extensively utilised by the Ministry of External Affairs in last five years when he was sent to represent India in national day events of countries like Israel and North Korea in their embassies in Delhi or visiting countries like Libya and Tunisia, where no Indian minister had visited for years together, to re-establish India's diplomatic relations.
Rijiju was first elected to Lok Sabha in 2004 and again in 2014 and 2019 from Arunachal-West constituency. PTI ACB
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RAMESWAR TELI: Rameswar Teli, a two-term MP from Dibrugarh in Assam and a tea-tribe leader who is into active politics since his student days, likes to keeps a low profile.
The 49-year-old leader had made his foray into electoral politics in 2001 when he won from Duliajan assembly constituency, which is under Dibrugarh Lok Sabha seat, on a BJP ticket and retained it in 2006.
He was, however, defeated by the Congress candidate in the assembly polls in 2011. He then won the Lok Sabha election three years later. PTI ESB/ACB
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PURSHOTTAM RUPALA: Purshottam Rupala, known as a good orator and a trouble-shooter, has been inducted in the Union ministry for a second time.
A school principal-turned-politician, Rupala, who belongs to the Patel community, has been with Modi through thick and thin and is a member of Rajya Sabha. During 2006 to 2010 he was Gujarat BJP chief when Modi was chief minister.
He was a Rajya Sabha member from 2008 to 2014. In 2016 he was again nominated to the upper house of Parliament. PTI PD KRK
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RAOSAHEB DANVE: Maharashtra BJP chief Raosaheb Danve, a five-time MP who was a Union minister for a short period during the first term of the Modi government, returned as a minister of state.
Danve, who rose from the ranks within BJP, was Minister of State for Rural Development in 2014.
But after then state BJP president Devendra Fadnavis became Maharashtra chief minister in November 2014, Danve took over reins of the party's state unit. PTI ND KRK
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ASHWANI CHOUBEY: Ashwani Kumar Choubey has emerged as the Brahmin face of the BJP in Bihar, a state where the party has few leaders of reckoning from the influential community.
Choubey began his political career as a member of the erstwhile Jana Sangh and he represented the Bhagalpur assembly segment as a BJP MLA several times.
He also served as a minister in the Nitish Kumar government until the Chief Minister snapped ties with the BJP in 2013 and held key portfolios like health, PHED (public health and engineering department) and urban development.
As the state's health minister, he once hit the headlines for advocating dismemberment of government doctors who played truant. PTI NAC SNS
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FAGGAN SINGH KULASTE: Faggan Singh Kulaste, a tribal leader from Madhya Pradesh, has made it to the council of ministers for the second time.
A six-time MP, Kulaste won from the tribal Mandla Lok Sabha seat in 1996 for the first time. Later, he won the ST-reserved seat in the Mahakoshal region of the state in 1998, 1999, 2004, 2014 and now 2019.
Kulaste made headlines when he, along with two other BJP MPs, Ashok Argal and Mahaveer Bhagora, placed wades of notes on the table in the Lok Sabha, alleging they were bribed for voting in favour of the Congress-led UPA government during the trust vote on July 22, 2008.
The 60-year-old Adivasi face of the BJP in the state had also served as a minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, where he handled parliamentary and tribal affairs portfolios. PTI MAS LAL RSY
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SANJAY DHOTRE: An engineer who is winner of an award in the agriculture sector, Sanjay Dhotre is a four-time BJP MP from Akola in Maharashtra.
Born into a Maratha family, Dhotre graduated as a mechanical engineer from the Government College of Engineering, Amravati. From early on, he was associated with the BJP.
He was elected to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly in 1999. In 2004, he made his Lok Sabha debut. PTI ND KRK
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NITYANAND RAI: Seen as the BJP's Yadav face in Bihar, where the party has been traditionally identified with the upper castes and the members of his community have been ardent supporters of Lalu Prasad's RJD, Nityanand Rai has undergone a meteoric rise in the last half decade.
Rai was associated with the ABVP in the 1980s. People in the Sangh Parivar recall the stout resistance he had put up against the efforts of Prasad, who was then the Chief Minister of Bihar, to stop the rath yatra of LK Advani.
He retained his seat in the recent general elections wherein he defeated former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha by over 2.77 lakh votes. PTI NAC SNS
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MANSUKH MANDAVIYA: Mansukh Mandaviya, a Rajya Sabha MP of BJP from Gujarat, has become a Union minister for a second time at the age of 46.
Mandaviya was Minister of State for Road Transport, Highways, Chemical and Fertilisers and Shipping in the earlier government.
Interestingly, the young parliamentarian drove to the Rashtrapati Bhavan on a bicycle from his residence in new Delhi Thursday to take oath as a minister.
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