New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government inducted nine new faces as Ministers of State on Sunday. The new ministers of state sworn in by President Ram Nath Kovind at a ceremony in the Rashtrapati Bhavan include Virendra Kumar, Anant Kumar Hegde and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, former IAS officers Alphons Kannanthanam and R K Singh, former diplomat Hardeep Puri and ex-Mumbai police chief Satyapal Singh. Two other new faces are Ashwini Kumar Choubey, a member of the Lok Sabha from Bihar, and Shiv Pratap Shukla from Uttar Pradesh. All the new ministers are from the BJP as its allies were not part of the exercise.
Here's a look at who these new ministers are:
Ashwini Kumar Choubey
Elected to the Bihar Legislative Assembly for five consecutive terms, Ashwini Kumar Choubey is the BJP's prominent Brahmin face from the state. Choubey, 64, is known for the slogan "Ghar-ghar me ho shouchalaya ka nirman, tabhi hoga ladli bitiya ka kanyadaan" and helped in constructing 11,000 toilets for Mahadalit families.
Shiv Pratap Skhukla
Shukla, a Rajya Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh, is a Member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development. Shukla was elected a Member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly for 4 consecutive times in 1989, 1991, 1993 and 1996. He served as a Cabinet Minister in the UP government for 8 years, and is known for his work in Rural Development, Education and Prison reform during his tenure.
Anant Kumar Hegde
The induction of Hegde has left many by surprise. Hegde was allegedly involved in a fracas with doctors at the Totagarara Seva Samiti (TSS) Hospital in Sirsi. Hedge was caught on CCTV assaulting and manhandling the doctors, alleging negligence in treating his ailing mother. Later, the issue was settled after the hospital management and doctors reached a compromise with Hegde.
Hardeep Singh Puri
Retired diplomat Hardeep Singh Puri has a distinguished four-decade career in diplomacy spanning the multilateral arena behind him. The 65-year-old, who took oath as a Minister of State, has served as India's Ambassador to the UN in New York and Geneva, and with his decades of diplomatic experience, his presence in the Council would be a rarity.
Gajendra Singh Shekhawat
Gajendra Singh Shekhawat is a Lok Sabha MP from Jodhpur, Rajasthan. He is a Member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance and Chairperson of the Fellowship Committee. The addition of Vasundhara Raje’s close aide Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, if it goes through, will mark a thaw in relations between the Rajasthan Chief Minister and the BJP leadership in Delhi. His appointment is also a political move to neutralise Ashok Gehlot in his home district Jodhpur as Gehlot is increasingly seen as the face of Congress in the run up to the assembly polls.
Alphons Kannatham
Alphons Kannanthanam is a distinguished former IAS officer. He is also a practicing advocate. Alphons became famous as Delhi's Demolition Man when he was Commissioner of the Delhi Development Authority, having cleared DDA areas of encroachment removing around 15,000 illegal buildings. This got him listed in Time Magazine's list of 100 Young Global Leaders in 1994.
Satya Pal Singh
A Mumbai Police commissioner who quit the post to join politics, Satyapal Singh seems to have found his true calling after taking the electoral plunge to become an MP and now a part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet. During his tenure in Mumbai, he is credited with breaking the backbone of organised crime syndicates that terrorised Mumbai in the 1990s, including the Chhota Rajan, Chhota Shakeel and Arun Gawli gangs.
Virendra Kumar
Associated with the RSS from childhood, Virendra Kumar is a six-time Lok Sabha member from Tikamgarh in Madhya Pradesh and the BJP's Dalit face. Born on February 27, 1954, Kumar became MP for the first time in 1996 in the 11th Lok Sabha from Sagar. Since then he has never looked back and won from Sagar till 2004.
RK Singh
Former Union Home Secretary and Lok Sabha MP from Arrah Raj Kumar Singh is a no-nonsense person, who has had a distinguished four-decade career as an IAS officer, before becoming a full-time politician in 2013. Singh, 64, first came to limelight in 1990 when he was given the task of arresting LK Advani in Samastipur in Bihar when the BJP veteran was on his Rath Yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya, by the then chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav.
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