June 9th 2024.
New Delhi: On Sunday, the third term of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government was formed, and it will include 33 new members, some of whom belong to well-known political families. Among these first-time ministers are three former chief ministers: Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Manohar Lal Khattar, and HD Kumaraswamy.
Chouhan, who has been a five-time MP from Vidisha, is no stranger to the political world. He has previously held the same constituency that was once represented by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and former External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. Chouhan also holds the record for being the longest-serving chief minister of Madhya Pradesh. On the other hand, Khattar, who has a background as a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh pracharak, has served as the chief minister of Haryana twice. He resigned from his post in March after the JJP withdrew its support from the government.
Out of the seven first-time ministers from allies, some notable names include TDP's K Rammohan Naidu, JDU's Lalan Singh and Ram Nath Thakur, RLD's Jayant Chaudhary, LJP's Chirag Paswan, and JD's HD Kumaraswamy. The 45-year-old Jayant Chaudhary, who is the national chairman of Rashtriya Lok Dal, is the grandson of Chaudhary Charan Singh, India's fifth Prime Minister, and the son of former Union minister Chaudhary Ajit Singh. He was previously associated with Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party but joined the NDA ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections after his grandfather was posthumously honored with the Bharat Ratna in February this year. Under his leadership, the RLD secured two seats in western Uttar Pradesh with significant margins. Similarly, Chirag Paswan, the son of the late Ram Vilas Paswan, one of Bihar's most influential leaders, is also set to make his debut as a minister in the central government. He won the Hajipur seat, previously held by his father for a record nine times, by a margin of 1.7 lakh votes in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. His party, LJP, made a comeback by sweeping all five seats it contested in Bihar under the NDA umbrella.
Another name to watch out for is Ram Nath Thakur, from Janata Dal, who is the son of Karpoori Thakur, a renowned socialist leader and former Chief Minister of Bihar. He hails from Samastipur and is known for his close association with Nitish Kumar. He previously served as a Bihar minister between 2005 and 2010. Additionally, Ravneet Singh Bittu, the grandson of Punjab's former Chief Minister Beant Singh, who was assassinated by a Khalistani militant organization in 1995, is also joining the Modi ministry. Bittu switched from the Congress to the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha elections but lost to Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring by over 20,000 votes. However, he has previously represented Punjab's Anandpur Sahib in Lok Sabha from 2009 to 2014 and Ludhiana from 2014 to 2024.
Raksha Khadse, the daughter-in-law of senior NCP leader Eknath Khadse, was also sworn in as a Union minister. She retained her Raver seat, winning it for the third time. She and Heena Gavit became the youngest MPs after winning the 2014 general elections when they were only 26 years old. However, her husband Nikhil Khadse passed away at the age of 37. Similarly, Jitin Prasada, who was one of the youngest ministers in the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government, is returning to the Union Council of Ministers after 10 years. He quit the Congress to join the BJP in 2021. His father Jitendra Prasada, a former vice-president of the Congress, served as a political advisor to two prime ministers: Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 and P V Narasimha Rao in 1994.
Other first-time ministers from the BJP include Kamlesh Paswan, Sukanta Majumder, Durga Das Uikey, Raj Bhushan Chaudhary, Satish Dubey, Sanjay Seth, C R Paatil, Bhagirath Chaudhary, Harsh Malhotra, V Somanna, Savitri Thakur, Kamaljeet Sehrawat, Prataprao Jadhav, George Kurian, Kirti Vardhan Singh, Tokhan Sahu, Bhupathi Raju Srinivasa Varma, Nimuben Bambhniya, Murlidhar Mohol, Pabitra Margherita, and Bandi Sanjay Kumar. With such a diverse group of first-timers, it will be interesting to see how they contribute to the functioning of the Modi government in the coming years.
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