Twitter
Advertisement

Cabinet reshuffle: Promotion to four ministers; Here's all you need to know about them

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Dharmendra Pradhan, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal have been promoted to Cabinet rank

Latest News
article-main
FacebookTwitterWhatsappLinkedin

Four junior ministers were promoted to the cabinet rank and nine new faces, including four former government officers, inducted as Ministers of State, in a rejig by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a focus on his agenda on good governance.

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Dharmendra Pradhan, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal, who were all holding the independent charge as state ministers, were promoted to the cabinet rank, which is being seen as an acknowledgement of their performance.

Nirmala Sitharaman has been appointed as Minister of Defence; Piyush Goyal replaces Suresh Prabhu as Minister of Railways; Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi retains Ministry of Minority Affairs and Dharmendra Pradhan Minister also remains Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

Tram Modi 2019: Complete list of Union Ministers

Here's all you need to know about them

► Piyush Goyal

Piyush Goyal, as a Minister of State with independent charge for power, coal, new and renewable energy and mines, is widely credited with astutely steering the Centre's rural electrification agenda and turning around the coal sector.

A chartered accountant by profession, 53-year-old Goyal was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Maharasthra last year for the second time.


 

►  Dharmendra Pradhan

Pradhan's rise comes on the back of his performance as a Minister of State of Petroleum and Natural Gas, which is spearheading Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pet scheme, 'Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana', of providing LPG connections.

48-year-old Pradhan, who has emerged as the party's most prominent face in Odisha, is also praised in the government circles for having made the 'Give It Up' plan, on people giving up subsidised cooking gas voluntarily, a success.

His father, Debendra Pradhan, was a minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and an MP from Odisha's Deogarh constituency.

In 2004, Pradhan was elected a member of the 14th Lok Sabha from the same constituency and held the seat till 2009, before he lost the subsequent poll. He was also a member of the Odisha legislative assembly between 2000 and 2004.


 

► Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi

Sixty-year-old Naqvi, a Shia from Uttar Pradesh, is the lone Muslim face in the council of ministers of the Modi government. He has been handling the twin protfolios of Minority Affairs (Independent Charge) and Parliamentary Affairs.


► Nirmala Sitharaman

One of the BJP's chief spokespersons before its ascent to power, Sitharaman (58) will be the BJP's first woman face in the Union Cabinet from south India. She is an alumna of the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

 

With agency inputs

 

Find your daily dose of news & explainers in your WhatsApp. Stay updated, Stay informed-  Follow DNA on WhatsApp.
Advertisement

Live tv

Advertisement
Advertisement