Two MPs from Punjab, including one of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), and another three MPs from neighbouring Haryana form a part of the Narendra Modi cabinet sworn-in on Thursday.
Harsimrat Kaur Badal, 53, MP (SAD) Bathinda, Punjab
The Badal family 'Bahu' and Member of Parliament (MP) from Bathinda, 53-year-old Harsimrat Kaur Badal was inducted in Modi cabinet today. As the great grand-daughter of Sardar Attar Singh Majithia, who was one of the senior-most Generals of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, this daughter-in-law of octogenarian five-time Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, has earlier served in Modi’s cabinet.
She was the Union minister of food processing from 2014 onwards. Her husband Sukhbir Singh Badal is former deputy chief minister of Punjab and the President of SAD. A two-term sitting MP from Bathinda, Kaur retained her seat defeating Raja Warring of the Congress by a margin of nearly 22,000 votes.
Harsimrat did her schooling from Loreto Convent in Delhi and graduated from Delhi University. She pursued textile designing for three years after college.
Harsimrat jumped into politics by contesting the general election in 2009 and was elected to the 15th Lok Sabha from the Bathinda constituency. It was being speculated that Kaur’s husband and junior Badal Sukhbir might be picked up as a minister in Modi’s cabinet. In the last few days, Kaur had maintained that she was not keen on being a Union minister.
Som Parkash, 70, MP (BJP) Hoshiarpur, Punjab
Som Parkash, 70, MP (BJP) Hoshiarpur, Punjab, first earned the repute as an able bureaucrat and later as a saffron party leader with a strong connection at the grassroots level. He is the new face in Narendra Modi’s cabinet.
He holds a post-graduate degree in Economics from Panjab University in Chandigarh. Som served as Deputy Commissioner of Jalandhar before he quit his job to join politics.
Som was picked up by the BJP after the party decided against giving the ticket for Hoshiarpur to its sitting MP and Union minister in Modi cabinet Vijay Sampla. A disgruntled Sampla had termed the BJP decision to axe him as “gau hatya” (cow slaughter).
Som Parkash has twice been an MLA, once in 2012 and then in the last assembly elections in Punjab in 2017 from the Phagwara assembly seat. He had first unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha election in 2009.
Som Parkash won the reserved seat from Hoshiarpur Lok Sabha constituency after defeating the Congress candidate by a margin of over 48,000 votes. In this election, he secured over 40% of the vote polled in the reserved constituency of Hoshiarpur.
Out of the 13 seats in Punjab, the BJP contested only on three seats as part of the alliance seat-sharing agreement. Out of them, the BJP won two: one from Hoshiarpur and the other from Gurdaspur, now represented by actor Sunny Deol.
Rao Inderjit Singh, 69, Gurugram, Haryana, MP (BJP)
An ace shooter during his time, a lawyer and a veteran politician, BJP MP from Gurugram in Haryana, 69-year-old Rao Inderjit Singh, will be serving a second term in Modi’s cabinet.
Rao joined the BJP in 2014. This time, he secured 61% of the total votes polled in the constituency defeating Ajay Yadav of the Congress. Rao has been an MLA in the Haryana state assembly for four terms and a minister holding various portfolios.
Rao Inderjit Singh was a member of the Indian shooting team from 1990 to 2003 and won a Bronze Medal at the Commonwealth shooting championship. His father Rao Birendra Singh served as Chief Minister of Haryana. Rao has been elected as MP four-times in the past. This would be his fifth term as an MP.
Besides other portfolios, Rao was the Union minister of state, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers. He was also Union Minister of State, Ministry of Defence.
The MP studied at the Lawrence School, Sanawar in HP, after which he studied at Delhi University to get an LLB degree.
Krishan Pal Gurjar, BJP MP Faridabad, Haryana
Krishan Pal Gurjar, who won the Lok Sabha elections from Faridabad constituency in Haryana, rose from a Councillor way back in 1994. This 62-year-old cash-rich politician, who joined the Union cabinet on Thursday, will be serving a second term in the Modi government. He is a three-term MP.
Krishan Pal Gurjar registered a victory over Congress' Avtar Singh Bhadana by a massive margin of 6.38 lakh votes. He is a grassroot politician and a Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment in Modi cabinet. He served as a Union Minister of State, Ministries of Road Transport and Highways, Shipping. Gurjar has a degree in law from Meerut University and holds a bachelor’s degree from Faridabad.
Rattan Lal Kataria, BJP MP, Ambala, Haryana
A two-term MP from Jatland, Kataria is a new face in Modi’s cabinet— the third MP from Haryana to be accommodated in the cabinet. The decision to have three MPs from Haryana in the cabinet has also been made in wake of the assembly elections in Haryana later this year.
Kataria maintained a low profile as an MP. Kataria is a Dalit leader who has won twice from the Ambala Lok Sabha reserved seat. He defeated Kumari Selja, considered close to Sonia Gandhi, by a huge margin. He campaign was centred essentially around Modi.
In the run-up to the general elections, speculations were rife that he would be denied the ticket. But not only did he get the ticket, he won the seat convincingly and now has been elevated as a Union minister.
Kataria began his political journey as a youth leader in the youth wing of the BJP in the eighties and became a member in the BJP's national council. He served as a minister in Haryana and the state party president. The MP has worked at various levels including as a member of the Committee on Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and a member of the Standing Committee on Finance.