Prominent India ministers’ profile

Following are the profile of some of the prominent ministers

By Sonny Abraham

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Published: Wed 28 May 2014, 12:33 AM

Last updated: Sat 4 Apr 2015, 2:04 AM

Rajnath Singh

Rajnath Singh, the president of the ruling BJP, is a former Union Minister for Agriculture and for Surface Transport, who has also served as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.

Singh, 62, has a Master’s degree in Physics and worked for some time as a lecturer in the subject at a college in Mirzapur. He has been an active worker of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological mentor of the BJP, from his student days. He joined the Jana Sangh in 1974 and rose within it and its successor party BJP over the years.

He served as BJP president fist from December 31, 2005 to December 19, 2009 and was elected to the position again on January 23, 2013, and has played a significant role in helping the party to regain power after a gap of ten years.

Sushma Swaraj

Sushma Swaraj, 62, is a former Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting, Health & Family Welfare and Parliamentary Affairs.

She was Leader of the Opposition in the previous Lok Sabha. She represents Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh in the current Lok Sabha.

Swaraj, who has a B.A. and an LL.B. degree, started out in politics in Haryana, where she served as Minister for Labour and Employment and later for Education between 1977 and 1990 before being elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1990 and the Lok Sabha in 1996.

A forceful speaker, she has been elected to the Rajya Sabha thrice and four times to the Lok Sabha. She also had a brief stint as the Chief Minister of Delhi.

Arun Jaitley

Arun Jaitley, 61, a well-known lawyer, is a former Union Minister of Commerce and of Law and Justice in the Vajpayee government. He has also handled, as Minister of State, portfolios of Information & Broacasting, Company Affairs, Shipping and Disinvestment.

He is a member of the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat and was the Leader of the Opposition in the House until now.

Born on December 28, 1952, he has a B. Com. (Hons.) and LL.B. degree from the University of Delhi. He was active in student politics and was a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). He was elected president of the Delhi University Students Union in 1974.

He was also part of th anti-corruption movement launched by Jayaprakash Narayan and was detained for 19 months during the internal emergency declared by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

After he was released from jail, he joined the Jana Sangh, the precursor to the present Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He fought the Lok Sabha elections for the first time this year and lost to Amarinder Singh of Congress from Amritsar, Punjab.

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