 "Mansukh Mandaviya")
After spearheading the government's response during the devastating second wave of Covid, Mansukh Mandaviya is set to lead the country’s labour reforms while ensuring social security as the next minister of labour and employment.
Mandaviya, who won his first Lok Sabha seat from Porbandar in Gujarat, has also been assigned the additional portfolio of Minister of youth affairs and sports.
“The party has full faith in Mandaviya and he is known to mean business. He has been made in charge of the labour ministry as the government wants to carry on with its reforms agenda. Going ahead, the government wants swift action on the already passed labour laws and Mandaviya is the right choice for it,” said a person close to the Union minister.
Earlier, Mandaviya had taken over as Union health minister from party veteran Harshvardhan in 2021. He was instrumental in handling the severe oxygen shortage during the second Covid wave. He was also given the additional charge of the ministry of chemicals and fertilisers in Modi 2.0.
Born in Bhavnagar district of Gujarat to a middle class farmer and youngest among four brothers, Mandaviya completed his primary education from the government school in Hanol (Gujarat).
He later went on to receive his Ph.D in political science from Gujarat Institute of Development Research in 2021.
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Mandaviya started his career in politics in 2002 where he fought from the Palitana constituency and became the youngest MLA in Gujarat. In 2004, he organised a 123-km walk, titled ‘Kanya Kelavani Jyot Padyatra’ for the ‘Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao’ cause.
It covered 45 educationally-backward villages of his constituency and was a pet project of then chief minister Narendra Modi.
In the year 2015, Mandaviya was appointed general secretary of BJP and was selected to represent India at the United Nations to talk about sustainable development.
In 2016, he was sworn in as minister of state for road transport & highways, shipping, and chemical & fertilisers for the first time.
During this tenure, Mandaviya helped increase the per day road construction speed and decreased the cost of urea and other fertilisers.
