Seven women have been included in the new cabinet led by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. There were 10 women ministers and state ministers in the previous cabinet. In other words, the number of women in Modi’s cabinet has decreased. Former Union Minister Smriti Irani, Minister of State Bharti Pawar, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Darshana Zardosh, Meenakshi Lekhi and Pratima Bhowmik did not get a place in the cabinet this time.
Narendra Modi was sworn in as Prime Minister for the third time at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday (June 9) evening. 71 other people took oath with him. Modi’s new cabinet has a total of 30 full ministers. 41 people got the responsibility of state minister.
Let’s know about the women who have got seats in the government led by the NDA alliance.
Nirmala Sitharaman
BJP Rajya Sabha MP Nirmala Sitharaman. He did not contest in the Lok Sabha. Nirmala Sitharaman was the finance minister in the previous cabinet. He took oath as full minister on Sunday. However, it is not clear which ministry will be given to him this time. Nirmala became a member of Modi’s cabinet three times in a row.
Annapurna Devi (BJP)
Two women were sworn in as full ministers in Modi’s third cabinet. One of them is Annapurna Devi of Jharkhand. She is the leader of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) community. Annapurna Devi was the minister of Jharkhand and undivided Bihar. Earlier he was associated with RJD. He played an important role in building the BJP organization in Jharkhand.
Savitri Thakur (BJP)
46-year-old Savitri Thakur has taken oath as the state minister. The leader of a minority ethnic group in Madhya Pradesh has won the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Dhar seat. Earlier, he wanted to contest in the 2019 elections. But then he did not get the nomination.
Nimuben Bamvaniya (BJP)
Nimuben Bamvania is one of the three women who contested for the BJP in Gujarat and won. He was made the state minister yesterday. This 57-year-old woman defeated Aam Aadmi Party rival Umesh Makwana in Bhavnagar constituency by a margin of 455,000 votes.
The former teacher served as the mayor of Bhavnagar for two terms in 2009-10 and 2015-18. She served as the State Vice President of BJP Nari Morcha between 2013 and 2021.
Raksha Kharse (BJP)
Raksha Khars, daughter-in-law of former BJP leader and three-time Maharashtra MP Eknath Khars, has been given the charge of state minister. In 2013, Swami Nikhil committed suicide after narrowly losing the Maharashtra assembly elections to NCP leader Manish Jain. Raksha Kharse then won the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 by contesting against Manish Jain in Ravire. He was re-elected in 2019.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the NCP candidate won against Sriram Patil by a margin of 272,000 votes.
Shobha Karandlaje (BJP)
Shobha Karandlaje, a strong critic of religious extremism, has again got a place in Modi’s cabinet. The leader, who served as Union Minister of State for Agriculture in the previous government, is a three-time member of the Lok Sabha. Sobha has defeated Congress leader Rajiv Gowda in Bengaluru North seat in the Lok Sabha elections. Shobha is Bangalore’s first woman MP.
Anupriya Patel (Apana Dal)
Anupriya Patel is back in the Union Cabinet. The leader of the Kurmi community is the daughter of late leader and founder of Apana Dal, Sonilal Patel. Anupriya served as Minister of State for Commerce in the previous government. He defeated Samajwadi Party leader Ramesh Chand Bind in Uttar Pradesh’s Mirzapur constituency.
Source: Times of India
