Tejashwi Prasad Yadav (born 9 November 1989) is the current Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, serving since 20 November 2015 in Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's cabinet. He was elected to the Bihar Legislative Assembly from the Raghopur constituency as a member of the Rashtriya Janata Dal in 2015. He is the son of former Bihar chief ministers Lalu Prasad Yadav and Rabri Devi. His elder brother Tej Pratap is also a minister in the Bihar government.

Prior to his plunge into politics, Yadav was a cricketer, who played as middle-order batsman in one Ranji Trophy match and two limited-overs games for Jharkhand. He was also a part of the Delhi Daredevils for its 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2012 Indian Premier League seasons.

Tajaswi Yadav is the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar. He is the youngest son of Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi. As a matter of fact, Lalu Prasad Yadav has two sons and six daughters. His brother name is Tej Pratap Yadav who has also been sworn in as a minister in the Nitish Kumar cabinet with important portfolio like health.

Tejaswi has entered the Bihar Vidhan Sabha along with his brother. He has won from Raghopur constituency.

Yashwant Sinha, IAS (born 6 November 1937) is an Indian politician and a former finance minister of India (1990–1991 under Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar and March 1998 – July 2002 under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee) and foreign minister (July 2002 – May 2004) in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's cabinet. He is a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which is now the single most dominant party of the Indian parliament after the 2014 general election. His son Jayant Sinha, a consultant and investor, won the 2014 elections for the Hazaribagh constituency and his son is currently serving as Minister of State in Finance in Narendra Modi's cabinet.

In 2015, in recognition for his contributions to Indo-French relations, Sinha was conferred the Legion of Honor, France's highest civilian honor.

Early life

Sinha was born in Patna, Bihar into a Kayastha family. He received his Master's degree in Political Science in 1958. Subsequently, he taught the subject at the University of Patna till 1960.

Civil Service career

Sinha joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1960 and spent over 24 years holding important posts during his service tenure. He served as Sub-Divisional Magistrate and District Magistrate for 4 years. He was Under Secretary and Deputy Secretary in the Finance Department of the Bihar Government for 2 years after which he worked in the Ministry of Commerce as Deputy Secretary to the Government of India.

From 1971 to 1973, he was First Secretary (Commercial) in the Indian Embassy, Bonn, Germany. Subsequently, he worked as Consul General of India in Frankfurt from 1973 to 1974. After working for over seven years in this field, he acquired experience in matters relating to foreign trade and India's relations with the European Economic Community. Thereafter, he worked in the Department of Industrial Infrastructure, Government of Bihar State and in the Ministry of Industry, government of India dealing with foreign industrial collaborations, technology imports, intellectual property rights and industrial approvals.

He later was Joint Secretary to Government of India in the Ministry of Surface Transport from 1980 to 1984, his main responsibilities were road transport, ports and shipping. He resigned from service in 1984.

Political career

Sinha was the finance minister until 1 July 2002, when he exchanged jobs with foreign minister Jaswant Singh. Sinha, during his tenure, was forced to roll back some of his government's major policy initiatives for which he was much criticised. Still, Sinha is widely credited for pushing through several major reform measures that put the Indian economy on a firm growth trajectory. Among them are lowering of real interest rates, introducing tax deduction for mortgage interest, freeing up the telecommunications sector, helping fund the National Highways Authority, and deregulating the petroleum industry. Sinha is also known for being the first Finance Minister to break the 53-year tradition of presenting the Indian budget at 5 pm local time, a practice held over from British Rule days that sought to present the Indian budget at a time convenient to the British Parliament (1130a GMT) rather than India's Parliament.

Sinha has written a comprehensive account of his years as Finance Minister titled Confessions of a Swadeshi Reformer.

Yashwant Sinha has been accused by opponents, and by other political observers of trying to promote nepotism by nominating his son Jayant Sinha as a successor to contest from Hazaribagh overlooking the interests of many other loyal party workers, though he tried to justify the nomination of his son as a party decision.

Accolades

On 25th April 2015, The French Government honoured the former Union Finance Minister and veteran BJP leader Yashwant Sinha with Officier de la Légion d’Honneur (Officer of the Legion of Honour). It is the highest French civilian distinction bestowed upon him in recognition of his international action taken during his stint as Union Minister of Finance, Minister External Foreign Affairs and for his invaluable contribution to international issues. Giving the Honour to Sinha on Saturday, French Ambassador to India François Richier said as Minister of External Affairs, and Chair of the Indo-French Parliamentary Friendship Group since its very inception (2009-2014), Sinha contributed to the deepening of the Indo-French strategic partnership, launched during the visit of Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Paris (September 1998) and the development of ties between France and India. Created in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte, the Legion of Honour is the highest civilian award given by the French Republic for outstanding service to France, regardless of the nationality of the recipients.

Personal life

Sinha has a wide range of interests including reading, gardening and meeting people. He has widely travelled and has led a number of political and social delegations. He played a leading role in many negotiations on behalf of India.[citation needed] Sinha's wife is Nilima Sinha, one of India's leading children's writers and President, Association of Writers and Illustrators for Children. He has a daughter, Sharmila who is a writer and married to Ashok Kantha, an Indian Foreign Service officer. He has two sons, Jayant and Sumant. Jayant Sinha is an Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi) and Harvard Business School graduate. He was a partner in McKinsey & Company and later a managing director at Omidyar Network. Jayant also contested elections for Member of Parliament from Yashwant Sinha's home constituency of Hazaribagh, which he won by a margin of 159,128 votes, getting a total of 406,931 in his favour. Sumant Sinha is also an alumnus of IIT Delhi, the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, and was a Dean's Fellow at The School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University. He is the founder and chairman of ReNew Power, a renewable energy power producer. Yashwant has six grandchildren named Siddhant, Aashir, Tarushi, Devansh rishab rand rishi.

Yashwant Sinha blogs under the title Musings of a Swadeshi Reformer.

Allegations

In his autobiography Drohkaal ka Pathik, released in November 2013, former MP Pappu Yadav alleged that three MPs of his Indian Federal Democratic Party got money from the then finance minister Sinha, to join the NDA in 2001. Also there were allegations against Yastwant Sinha,that he was involved in the UTI scam.

Rajiv Pratap Rudy (born 30 March 1962) is an Indian politician, representing Bharatiya Janata Party, and a Member of Parliament representing Saran Lok Sabha constituency in Bihar, India since May 2014. In November 2014, he was made Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship in Narendra Modi's government, a key ministry in view of Modi's slogan of 'Make in India' and associated attempts to make India a production hub. He also shares Parliamentary Affairs department jointly with another Minister of State, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. Rudy is a General Secretary of Bharatiya Janata Party, a position he will relinquish soon since he has joined the government. He also holds a commercial pilot's license.

Early life

Rajiv Rudy was a lecturer prior to entering politics, but he had been involved in student politics while at Punjab University Campus, Sector 14, Chandigarh and in Government College, Sector, 11, Chandigarh, which is affiliated to Punjab University, Chandigarh.he was gentle also from college day. He is from a Bihari Rajput family.

Political career

He was elected in 1990 as an Member of the Bihar Legislative Assembly. He was elected to the Lok Sabha - the lower house of the Parliament of India - as a candidate of the BJP. He was re–elected for a second term of Lok Sabha in 1999, from Bhartiya Janata Party. He served as the Minister of State for Commerce, Trade & Industry and subsequently became Civil Aviation Minister with independent charge in the National Democratic Alliance government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Rudy had earlier held the post of National Vice President of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha. Currently, he is a General Secretary and member of the BJP National Executive. He was elected to Rajya Sabha from Bihar in 2010. He contested the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections from Saran constituency in Bihar and defeated former Chief Minister of Bihar, Rabri Devi. He was sworn-in as Minister of State on 9 November 2014 and got Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship.

Personal life

Rudy is married to Neelam Pratap and has two daughters.

Mobashar Jawad "M.J." Akbar is a leading Indian journalist and author besides being the national spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Rajya Sabha MP from Jharkhand. He was the Editor-in-Chief and then Editorial Director of The Sunday Guardian, a weekly newspaper that he founded, until he left to join politics full-time. He has remained associated with the leading media houses and periodicals in India including India Today, Headlines Today, The Telegraph. The Asian Age and Deccan Chronicle among others.

He has written several non-fiction books, including Byline (New Delhi: Chronicle Books, 2003), a biography of Jawaharlal Nehru titled Nehru: The Making of India, a book on Kashmir titled Kashmir: Behind the Vale, Riot After Riot and India: The Siege Within. He also authored The Shade of Swords, a history of jihad. Akbar has also authored fiction, such as the family saga Blood Brothers. His latest book is Tinderbox: The past and future of Pakistan, in January 2012 which discusses the themes of identity crisis and class struggles in Pakistan.

Early life

He was born on 11 January 1951. As per semi-fictional book written by Akbar, Blood Brothers – A Family Saga, Akbar's paternal grandfather was a Hindu named Prayag who lived in the small jute-mill town of Telinipara near Chandannagar, just north of Kolkata, in the Hooghly District of West Bengal. Prayag fell in love with a Muslim girl and married her after converting to Islam and taking the name Rehmatullah.

Akbar attended Calcutta Boys' School and later Presidency College, Calcutta (1967-70), where he attained a BA (Hons) in English.

Career

Akbar joined The Times of India in 1971 as a trainee. Within a few months, he moved to the The Illustrated Weekly of India, then India's largest selling magazine, working as a sub-editor as well as distinguishing himself as a feature writer capable of contributing a prolific number of stories. He would remain with the weekly until 1973 when he was named editor of the news fortnightly, Onlooker, owned by The Free Press Journal Group in Mumbai. In 1976, he moved to Calcutta to join the Ananda Bazar Patrika (ABP) Group as editor of The Sunday, a political weekly. Within just three years of its launch, the investigative reporting pioneered by the magazine established its national circulation and number one position. The magazine took an uncompromising stand against the Emergency and fought press censorship and dictatorship. The Sunday not only established major trends in journalism but also spawned a new generation of journalists in the country.

In 1982, after the success of The Sunday, Akbar launched what is considered by some to be India's first modern newspaper. He conceived, designed and edited the daily newspaper, The Telegraph, which had a major impact on newspaper journalism in India.

Akbar was also the editor-in-chief of The Deccan Chronicle, a Hyderabad-based news daily.

In 1989, he took a brief detour into politics with his election to the Indian Parliament in November 1989 from Kishanganj in Bihar on a Congress(I) ticket. He lost the seat in the 1991 Lok Sabha elections. He served as late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's official spokesman.

In 1991, Akbar joined the Government as an advisor in the Ministry of Human Resources, and helped policy planning in key areas of education, the National Literacy Mission and in the protection of heritage. He resigned from the post and quit politics in December 1992, returning to journalism and full-time writing. In 1993, Akbar started a new media company with the aim of creating India's first newspaper that would not only include an international focus within its editorial range, but also be the first Indian daily with an international edition. This newspaper appeared in February 1994. The Asian Age was launched with initial editions in Delhi, Bombay, and London, and by 2008 had grown, in collaboration with the Deccan Chronicle, to eight editions, into a major media presence nationally and internationally. In 2004, the group began publishing The International Herald Tribune in India, and became a publishing partner of The New York Times.

In 2005, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia appointed him as a member of the committee to draft a ten-year charter for Muslim nations on behalf of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

In March 2006, Akbar joined the Brookings Institution, Washington, as a Visiting Fellow in the Brookings Project on U.S. Policy Towards the Islamic World. During the late 90s, he diluted his stake in the Asian Age, eventually selling of a major part of it to the Reddys, the owners of the Deccan Chronicle Group.

In March 2008, Akbar was removed from The Asian Age and Deccan Chronicle due to differences with the owners over editorial policy, as some newspapers have reported it.

Akbar launched the fortnightly political magazine Covert on 13 May 2008 in Delhi with the first issue on stands on 14 May. Simultaneously, the Covert website was launched two days later though it was ultimately discontinued.

Akbar launched a new Sunday newspaper from 31 January 2010, The Sunday Guardian, published from New Delhi and Chandigarh besides an edition called India on Sunday from London. He remained the Editor-in-Chief and then Editorial Director there until May 2014, when he resigned to join politics full-time.

In the meanwhile, in September 2010, he joined the Living Media as Editorial Director of the leading weekly English news magazine India Today and the English news channel Headlines Today. He left in October 2012.

Politics

Akbar was a Congress MP from Kishanganj in Bihar between 1989 and 1991, he was also a Congress party spokesperson in 1989. M J Akbar joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in March 2014. He was appointed as national spokesperson of the party and elected to Rajya Shabha from Jharkhand in June 2015.

Personal life

Akbar is married to Mallika Joseph, his contemporary at The Times of India. They have two children, Prayaag and Mukulika.

Books

• Nehru: the Making of India (1990)
• Riot After Riot (1991)
• Kashmir: Behind the Vale (1991)
• India: The Siege within - Challenges to a Nation's Unity (1996)
• The Shade of Swords: Jihad and the Conflict between Islam and Christianity (2003)
• Byline (2004)
• Blood Brothers - A Family Saga (2006)
• Have Pen, Will Travel (2010)
• Tinderbox: The Past and Future of Pakistan (2012)
• A Mirror to Power: The Politics of a Fractured Decade, HarperCollins India, 2015.

Ravi Shankar Prasad (born 30 August 1954) is an Indian lawyer, politician and the current Union Minister holding Communications and Information Technology portfolio in the Government of India. A member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Prasad represents the state of Bihar as a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha. During the NDA Government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee's prime ministership, Prasad held the position of Minister of State in the Ministry of Coal and Mines, the Ministry of Law and Justice, and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. He is also a designated senior advocate in the Supreme Court of India.

Early life

Prasad was born in a Kayastha family in Patna, Bihar. His father Thakur Prasad was a senior advocate at the Patna High Court and one of the leading founders of the Jan Sangh, the predecessor of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Prasad earned BA Hons, MA (Political Science) and LL.B degrees from Patna University and has a son and a daughter. On 3 February 1982, Prasad married Maya Shankar who is a historian and professor of history at Patna University. His sister, Anuradha Prasad is married to Congress leader and former minister Rajeev Shukla and she is the managing director of News 24.

Law career

Prasad has been practising at the Patna High Court since 1980. He was designated senior advocate at the Patna High Court in 1999 and Senior Advocate at the Supreme Court of India in 2000.

Prasad was the main lawyer arguing the PIL against former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav in the fodder scam that led to the jailing of several politicians and officials, including Lalu Prasad. He is the lawyer in the Ayodhya Ram temple title suit case representing 'Ram Lalla', the deity, in the case. He has represented former Deputy Prime Minister L. K. Advani and has appeared in several leading cases including Narmada Bachao Andolan Case, T. N. Thirumulpad environment cases, Bihar assembly dissolution case among others.

Political career

Prasad began his political career as a student leader in the 1970s organising protests against Indira Gandhi's government and was also jailed when the emergency was imposed by Gandhi's government in 1977. He worked in the student movement in Bihar under the leadership of Jayaprakash Narayan and was an active volunteer of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). He was associated with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and ABVP for many years and held various posts in the organisations. During his college days he was Assistant General Secretary of the Patna University Students Union and member of the Senate, Finance Committee, Arts and Law Faculties of the University. Prasad has held several national-level assignments in the youth wing and the main party organisation of the BJP. Since 1995 Prasad has been a member of BJP National Executive, the party's top policymaking body. Recently, he oversaw the party's efforts in the Uttarakhand Assembly Elections.

He became a Member of Parliament in 2000 and became the Minister of State (Coal and Mines) in 2001 under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Soon after taking over, Prasad accelerated the reforms process in the mining and coal sectors. In July 2002, he was given the charge of Ministry of Law and Justice (State). He prepared a bill to amend the Representation of People Act with in a fortnight in 2002. In 2003, he became the information and broadcasting minister. He is responsible for introducing reforms in the radio, television and animation which improved the quality and functioning of these sectors. He helped establish Goa as the location of the International Film Festival of India. He also led the Indian delegation to film festivals in Cannes, Venice and London.

In April 2002, he led the Indian delegation to the Non-Aligned Movement's ministerial meet in Durban, South Africa. Later he met Yasser Arafat in Ramallah as a member of a Non-Aligned delegation to express solidarity with him. He led the Indian delegation to the Commonwealth Law Minister Summit in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. He has led the Indian delegation to film festivals in Cannes, Venice and London.

Prasad became a national spokesperson of the BJP in 2006 and was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Bihar in the same year. He has adopted the village of Alawalpur under Fatuha block of Patna district as a model village to be developed under the Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana. He was appointed as the Chief National Spokesperson of the BJP in 2007 and in 2010, he was appointed as the General Secretary of the BJP. In 2012, Prasad was re-elected to the Rajya Sabha from Bihar for a consecutive 3rd term and lead BJP in the Rajya Sabha as Deputy Leader of Opposition.

After the victory of BJP led NDA in 2014 general elections, Narendra Modi was elected as the Prime Minister of India. On 26 May 2014, Prasad took oath as Union Minister and was allotted the portfolios of Law and Justice, and Communications & Information Technology.

Sushil Kumar Modi (born 5 January 1952) is an Indian politician from the Bharatiya Janata Party who was Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister of Bihar, India, from 2005 to 2013. He is a lifelong member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. He was appointed the Chairman of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers for the Implementation of Goods and Service Tax in July 2011.

Early life

Sushil Modi was born on 5 January 1952 in a Marwari (Vaishya Bania) family, which is categorised as Other Backward Class by Government of India. His father was Moti Lal Modi and his mother was Ratna Devi. He has done BSc from B N College, Patna. He graduated Patna Science College and did Botany Hons in 1973. Later he left MSc Botany Course in Patna University, to join social movement started by Jai Prakash Narayan. Modi married Jessie George in 1987 in an inter-caste and an inter-religious marriage. Jessie George hails from Mumbai.

During Sino-Indian War of 1962, Modi was active in organising and mobilising the school students and was appointed Commandment by the Civil Defence to train the civilians and students to maintain their physical fitness and teach them to parade. In 1962, Modi became a member of Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS). In 1968, he did a Three Year Officer’s Training Course (OTC), the highest RSS training course. After Matriculation, he devoted a month as a Vistarak (Whole Time Worker) and worked in Danapur, Khagol starting various RSS branches at different places. Later, he was made the In-charge of evening branches of RSS Patna Town. Modi had a family business of ready-made garments. Against the family wishes of joining family business, he continued with his work for the people.

Political career

Sushil Modi was a student leader at Patna University Students Union was General Secretary of Student’s Union in 1973. Lalu Prasad Yadav was the President of the Union that time. In 1974 he became a Member of Bihar Pradesh Chaatra (Student) Sangharsh Samiti which spearheaded the famous Bihar Student’s Movement of 1974. Modi was arrested five times during JP Movement and the Emergency. First time he was arrested in 1974 during student movement in Bihar. He challenged constitutional validity of MISA and the Supreme Court struck down section 9 of MISA as unconstitutional. This was historic judgement. He was booked under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) and various other acts from 1973 to 1977. During emergency he was arrested on 30 June 1975 and kept in the prisons of Samastipur, Darbhanga, Buxar, Hazaribagh, Bhagalpur and also in the PMCH Prisoner Ward and remained in Jail for 19 months continuously. He was appointed the State Secretary of Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad after emergency was over. From 1977 to 1986, he held different posts including that of State Organising Secretary, Bihar, All India Secretary, in-charge of UP and Bihar and then the All India General Secretary of Vidyarthi Parishad. During this tenure at the top he led a movement against the declaration of Urdu as the second language of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Concerned about the issue of foreign infiltration from Bangladesh in the bordering districts of Bihar he raised the issue and after Assam, a movement against foreign infiltrators was launched in Bihar under his leadership.

In 1990, he joined active politics and successfully contested from Patna Central Assembly (now known as Kumhrar (Vidhan Sabha constituency)). He was re-elected in 1995 & 2000. In 1990, he was made the Chief Whip of the BJP Bihar Legislature Party. From 1996 till 2004 he was the Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly. He filed the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Patna High Court against Lalu Prasad, which was later known as fodder scam. He became a member of Lok Sabha in 2004 representing the constituency of Bhagalpur. He was the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs in a short lived Nitish Kumar government in 2000. He supported the formation of the State of Jharkhand. In 2005 Bihar election, NDA came to power and Modi was elected the leader of Bihar BJP Legislature Party. He subsequently resigned from the Lok Sabha and took over as the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar. He was given the Finance Portfolio along with a number of other departments. After NDA victory in 2010 Bihar elections, he continued to be the Deputy chief minister of Bihar. Sushil Modi did not contest the 2005 and 2010 Bihar Assembly elections to be able to campaign for BJP.

Ram Vilas Paswan (born 5 July 1946) is an Indian politician, from Bihar and the current Union MInister of Food and Public Distribution. Paswan is also the president of the Lok Janshakti Party, eight time Lok Sabha member and former Rajya Sabha MP. Started his political career as member of Samyukta Socialist Party and was elected to the Bihar Legislative Assembly in 1969. Next he joined Lok Dal upon its formation in 1974, and became its general secretary. He opposed the emergency, and was arrested during the period. He entered the Lok Sabha in 1977, as a Janata Party member from Hajipur constituency, was chosen again 1980, 1984, 1989, 1996 and 1998.

In 2000, he formed the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) as its President. Subsequently, he joined the ruling United Progressive Alliance government and remained a Union Minister in Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers and Ministry of Steel. He won the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, but lost the 2009 elections. After being member of a Rajya Sabha member from 2010 to 2014, he was elected again to the 16th Lok Sabha in the 2014 Indian general election from Hajipur constituency.

Early life

Paswan was born in a Dalit family in 1946 in Bihar. Paswan holds a Bachelor of Laws and a Master of Arts degrees from Kosi College, Khagaria and Patna University.

Paswan hails from Shaharbanni village in Khagaria district of Bihar. He was born to a scheduled-caste family. He married Rajkumari Devi in 1960s and divorced in 1981. He has two daughters from first wife, Usha and Asha. In 1983, he married Reena Sharma , an airhostess and a Punjabi Hindu from Amritsar. They have a son and a daughter. His Son Chirag Paswan is an actor-turned-politician.

Political career

Paswan was elected to the Bihar state legislative assembly in 1969 as a member of the Samyukta Socialist Party ("United Socialist Party") from a reserved constituency. In 1974, as an ardent follower of Raj Narain and Jayaprakash Narayan Paswan became the general secretary of the Lok Dal. He was personally close to the prominent leaders of anti-emergency like Raj Narain, Karpoori Thakur and Satyendra Narayan Sinha. He parted ways with Morarji Desai and joined Janata Party-S led by Lokbandhu Raj Narain as party's president and later as its Chairman.

In 1975, when emergency was proclaimed in India, he was arrested and spent the entire period in jail. On being released in 1977, he became a member of the Janata Party and won election to Parliament for the first time on its ticket, and he held the world record for winning election by highest margin. He was re-elected to the 7th Lok Sabha in 1980 and 1984 from Hajipur constituency. In 1983, he established the Dalit Sena, an organisation for Dalit emancipation and welfare.

Paswan was re-elected to the 9th Lok Sabha in 1989 and was appointed Union Minister of Labour and Welfare in the Vishwanath Pratap Singh government. In 1996 he even led the ruling alliance or Proposition in the Lok Sabha as the Prime Minister was a member of the Rajya Sabha. This was also the year when he first became the Union Railway Minister. He continued to hold that post till 1998. Thereafter, he was the Union Communications Minister from October 1999 to September 2001 when he was shifted to the Coal Ministry, the portfolio he held till April 2002.

In 2000 Paswan broke from the Janata Dal, to form the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). Following the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, Paswan joined the United Progressive Alliance government and was made the Union Minister in Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers and Ministry of Steel.

In the February 2005 Bihar State elections, Paswan's party LJP along with the Indian National Congress contested the election. The result was that no particular party or alliance could form a government by itself. However, Paswan consistently refused to support either Laloo Yadav, whom he accused of being extremely corrupt, or the right-wing National Democratic Alliance thereby creating a stalemate. This stalemate was broken when Nitish Kumar succeeded in persuading 12 members of Paswan's party to defect; to prevent the formation of a government supported by LJP defectors, the Governor of Bihar, Buta Singh dissolved the state legislature and called for fresh elections, keeping Bihar under President's Rule. In the November 2005 Bihar state elections, Paswan's third-alliance was utterly devastated; the Laloo Yadav-Congress alliance reduced to a minority and the NDA formed the new government.

Paswan has declared that the Bihar state elections have no influence on the Central Government, which will continue with both him and Laloo Yadav as ministers. Paswan has served as a Union Minister under five different Prime Ministers and holds the distinction of continuously holding on to a cabinet berth in all the Council of Ministers formed since 1996 (as of 2015). He also holds the distinction of being part of all the national coalitions (the United Front, the National Democratic Alliance and the United Progressive Alliance), which have formed the Indian Government from 1996 to 2015.

For the Indian general election, 2009 Paswan forged an alliance with Lalu Prasad Yadav and his Rashtriya Janata Dal, while dumping their erstwhile coalition partner and leader of the United Progressive Alliance, the Indian National Congress from the new alliance. The duo was later joined by Mulayam Singh's Samajwadi Party and were declared the Fourth Front. He lost the elections from Hajipur to the Janata Dal's Ram Sundar Das, a former Chief Minister of Bihar for the first time in 33 years. His party the Lok Janshakti Party was not able to win any seats in the 15th Lok Sabha, while his coalition partner Yadav and his party too failed to perform well and were reduced to 4 seats.


He was elected as member of 16th Lok Sabha after the 2014 Indian general election from Hajipur constituency, while his son Chirag Paswan won from Jamui constituency also in Bihar.

Meira Kumar is an Indian politician and a five time Member of Parliament. She was elected unopposed as the first woman Speaker of Lok Sabha and served from 2009 to 2014.

She is a lawyer and a former diplomat. Prior to being a member of the 15th Lok Sabha, she has been elected earlier to the 8th, 11th, 12th and 14th Lok Sabha. She served as a Cabinet Minister in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment of Manmohan Singh's Congress led Government (2004–2009).

Early life

Meira Kumar was born in Patna, Bihar to the former Deputy Prime Minister and prominent Dalit leader Jagjivan Ram and a freedom fighter, Indrani Devi.

She attended Welham Girls School, Dehradun and Maharani Gayatri Devi Girls' Public School in Jaipur. She studied at Banasthali Vidyapith for a short duration. She completed her M.A and L.L.B, at Indraprastha College and Miranda House, Delhi University. She also received an honorary doctorate from Banasthali Vidyapith in 2010.

Career

Foreign Service

In 1970, she joined the Indian Foreign Service and spent her life in many countries.

Political career

Meira Kumar entered electoral politics in 1985 and was elected from Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh, defeating political heavyweights like Ram Vilas Paswan and Mayawati, two powerful Dalit leaders. She was a member of the eighth, eleventh and twelfth Lok Sabha's from Karol Bagh in Delhi. She lost her seat in the BJP wave of 1999, but was able to get re-elected with a record majority from her father's former constituency of Sasaram in Bihar in 2004 and 2009.

She served in the Congress-led Government as the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment from 2004 to 2009. In 2009, she was briefly inducted as member of the cabinet as Union Minister for Water Resources. Upon being nominated for the position of Speaker, she submitted her resignation three days after assuming ministerial office. She was elected the Speaker of Lok Sabha, thereby becoming the first woman speaker of the country. She served as the Speaker from 2009 to 2014. In the Indian general election, 2014 Kumar contested and lost to Chhedi Paswan from Sasaram by a margin of 63,327 votes.

Rabri Devi (born 1956) is an Indian politician from the state of Bihar. She is a Member of the Legislative Council for Bihar Vidhan Parishad who has served three terms as the Chief Minister, of Bihar, India, as a member of the Rashtriya Janata Dal political party, between 1997 and 2005. She is the wife of the Indian politician Lalu Prasad Yadav, former Chief Minister of Bihar and former Railway Minister of India. Her younger son Tejashwi Yadav currently serves as the 4th Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar and at 26 years, is the youngest to hold the coveted office, while elder son Tej Pratap Yadav occupies the post of Bihar Health Minister. Speculation is rife that Rabri is certain to ascend into the Rajya Sabha either from Uttar Pradesh or Bihar in 2016.

Personal life

Rabri Devi married Lalu Prasad Yadav in 1973 at the age of 17 and has nine children, seven girls and two boys.

Political career

She became the first woman Chief Minister of Bihar on 25 July 1997 after her husband Lalu Prasad Yadav had to resign as the Chief Minister following the arrest warrant issued against him in corruption charges; in an unprecedented move, he anointed Rabri Devi as the new Bihar Chief Minister to hold onto power.

She contested from Saran constituency in 2014 Loksabha election but lost.

Jitan Ram Manjhi (born 6 October 1944) is an Indian politician from the eastern state of Bihar who served as its 23rd Chief Minister from 20 May 2014 to 20 February 2015. Previously, he had served as minister for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes welfare in Nitish Kumar's cabinet. He has been a minister in several Bihar state governments, under multiple chief ministers like Chandrashekhar Singh, Bindeshwari Dubey, Satyendra Narayan Sinha, Jagannath Mishra, Laloo Prasad Yadav and Rabri Devi.

Manjhi has been a member of the Bihar Legislative Assembly since 1980. He was affiliated with several political parties, Indian National Congress (1980–1990), Janata Dal (1990–1996), Rashtriya Janata Dal (1996–2005) and JD(U) (2005–2015). He was expelled from JD(U) following the February 2015 political crisis and subsequently Jitan Ram Manjhi emerged as a major Dalit face in Bihar. In May 2015, he announced the new political party, Hindustani Awam Morcha. In July 2015, Jitan Ram Manjhi was accorded "Z"-plus security cover by the Union Home Ministry.

Early life

Manjhi was born on 6 October 1944 in Mahakar village under Khijarsarai area in Gaya district of Bihar. His father Ramjit Ram Manjhi and mother Sukri Devi were farm labourers. After completing his graduation from Magadh University, he worked at the Gaya telephone exchange. He is married to Shanti Devi and has two sons and five daughters.

Political Career

Jitan Ram Manjhi entered politics in 1980. On the ticket of the Indian National Congress party, he contested and won the assembly elections from the Fatehpur segment in Gaya district. He became a minister for the first time in the Chandrashekhar Singh-led government in Bihar. He won from the same constituency in the 1985 election, but lost in 1990. Between 1980 and 1990, he served as a minister of state in successive cabinets headed by Congress chief ministers Bindeshwari Dubey, Satyendra Narayan Sinha and Jagannath Mishra.

Immediately after losing the 1990 election, Manjhi switched to the Janata Dal. But when the Janata Dal split in 1996 and Laloo Prasad Yadav formed his own Rashtriya Janata Dal, Manjhi moved to the RJD under Yadav and won the Barachatti seat in the 1996 by-election (the previous incumbent Bhagwati Devi had left this seat to become a Member of Parliament from Gaya constituency). In the following election in 2000, he again won the same seat on an RJD ticket. Throughout 1996 to 2005, Manjhi was a minister in the RJD state government in Bihar, first under the chief ministership of Yadav himself, and then under Rabri Devi, Yadav's wife who took the chair of CM after Yadav himself was convicted and jailed for the Fodder Scam.

When Yadav's RJD lost the October 2005 elections to the Bharatiya Janata Party-Janata Dal (United) NDA coalition, Manjhi switched loyalties to the JDU. He won the election from Barachatti putting behind Samta Devi of his previous party RJD.

However, Manjhi was asked to resign immediately on the next day when his involvement in a corruption scam surfaced. Manjhi was involved in a fake B.Ed. degree racket in Bihar as the state education minister in the RJD government during the 1990s. As a junior minister in the Rabri Devi government, he was alleged to have given illegal permissions to institutes to run fake degree courses. He was later re-inducted in the state government cabinet by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in 2008 after having absolved of the charges.

During the 2008 food crisis in Bihar, Manjhi promoted eating rats as they caused damage to food grains and as rats and chickens had "equal food values, not only in terms of protein, but in all areas of nutrition". Rat catching is common with people of the socioeconomically backward Musahar caste, to which Manjhi belongs.

In the 2010 Bihar elections, he was elected to state legislative assembly from Makhdumpur in Jehanabad district. After Kumar split his party Janata Dal (United) from the NDA to oppose coalition leader Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, Manjhi contested from Gaya but lost heavily and came a poor third behind winner Hari Manjhi (BJP) and Ramji Manjhi (RJD).

Manjhi is considered as a close confidant of Bihar ex-CM and JDU supremo Nitish Kumar, but is not known for his administrative skills. Following the JDU's poor showing in the 2014 general election, Kumar accepted responsibility for the defeat and resigned. Manjhi, minister for SC and ST welfare in Nitish's cabinet, replaced him as the 23rd Chief Minister of Bihar. Manjhi's promotion, despite his loss in the general elections and a miserable third-place finish in Gaya, has been criticized in the media for being a cynical political ploy of Kumar deliberately choosing a puppet whom he could control as well as to rouse casteist emotions. Opposition leader Sushil Kumar Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party called Manjhi a "dummy chief minister", to which Manjhi responded by saying he was "not a rubber stamp." But after taking oath on 20 May 2014, Manjhi stated that he would "continue to seek guidance from Nitish Kumar." Due to the breakup of the JDU from the BJP-led NDA and the desertion of some JDU MLAs, CM Manjhi's government faced instability and appeared unlikely to pass the trust vote in the state legislative assembly. However, Lalu Prasad Yadav's RJD and Sonia Gandhi's Congress party provided outside support to Manjhi because he belongs to a backward caste.

After ten months, the party asked him to resign to make way for Nitish Kumar to return as the Chief Minister. He refused and was expelled from the party for refusing on 9 February 2015, resulting in a political crisis in the state. The governor asked Manjhi to seek a vote of confidence on 20 February 2015, the first day of budget session of assembly. BJP announced it would support Manjhi but Manjhi was short of numbers he needed to prove the majority. On 20 February 2015, Manjhi resigned from the post of chief minister in morning before vote. He told that the legislators who supported him were threatened with death and the speaker of assembly did not allow a secret ballot so he chose to resign. He said that people of the state is watching these politicians and will show them the power of democracy.

During a speech in a meeting of Bihar State Foodgrain Businessmen's Association, Manjhi commented that his government is ready to forgive allegations against small-scale traders that indulge in black marketing and hoarding of food grains. He defended their action by adding that small-scale hoarding by these traders were a means to provide sustenance to their families and education to their children, both of which, in his view, were "noble causes." Widely criticised by the Indian media as "shocking," the comment came at a time when soaring prices of essential commodities was exacerbating India's food inflation, which the credit rating agency Moody's attributed to "structural problems that have widened the gap between demand and supply of food."

He floated new political front, Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), on 28 February 2015 and clarified that the political party was not formed due to technical difficulties. Jitan Ram Manjhi is also active on social media like Facebook. On 8 May 2015, he announced the formation of the new political party. On 11 June 2015,Jitan Ram Manjhi announced his party Hindustani Awam Morcha alliance with BJP for the upcoming Bihar Legislative Assembly election, 2015. In July 2015, Election Commission recognised the Hindustani Awam Morcha as political party. Manjhi contested from two assembly seats: Makhdumpur and Imamganj assembly seat in the 2015 state elections. He won from Imamganj, though lost in Makhdumpur.

Nitish Kumar (born 1 March 1951) is an Indian politician who has been Chief Minister of Bihar since February 2015. Previously he served as the Chief Minister of Bihar from 2005 to 2014 and served as a minister in the Union Government of India. He belongs to the Janata Dal (United) party. He endeared himself to Biharis, used to low expectations from previous regimes, when as Chief Minister, his socialist policies bore dividends in appointing more than 100,000 school teachers, ensuring that doctors worked in primary health centers, electrification of villages, paving of roads, cutting female illiteracy by half, turning around a lawless state by cracking down on criminals and doubling the income of the average Bihari.

On 22 February 1973, Nitish Kumar married Manju Kumari Sinha, a teacher by profession. They have a son, Nishant, who is a graduate in engineering. Manju Sinha died in 2007 at the age of 53. Nitish's nickname is Munna.

On 17 May 2014 he resigned, owning responsibility for his party's poor performance in the 2014 general elections, and was succeeded by Jitan Ram Manjhi. However, he returned to office in February 2015 after a political crisis and won the state elections of November 2015.

Early life

Nitish Kumar was born in Bihar in a Kurmi family to Kabiraj Ram Lakhan Singh and Parmeshwari Devi. His father was a 'freedom fighter' and was close to the great Gandhian Bihar Vibhuti Anugrah Narayan Sinha, one of the founders of modern Bihar. His father, who was also an Ayurvedic Vaidyaraj, left the Indian National Congress to join the Janata Party after it denied him candidature in the 1952 and 1957 general elections.

He got a degree in mechanical engineering from Bihar College of Engineering, (now NIT Patna) in 1972. He joined the Bihar State Electricity Board as part of the Indian Engineering Service, half-heartedly, and later moved into politics.

Political career

Nitish Kumar belongs to a socialist class of politicians. He learnt the lessons of politics under the tutelage of stalwarts Jayaprakash Narayan, Ram Manohar Lohia, S N Sinha, Karpuri Thakur and V. P. Singh.

Nitish Kumar participated in Jayaprakash Narayan's movement between 1974 and 1977, and was close to Satyendra Narayan Sinha, a prominent leader of the time.

Union Minister in Centre

Nitish Kumar was briefly, the Union Minister for Railways and Minister for Surface Transport and later, the Minister for Agriculture in 1998–99, in the NDA Government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. In August 1999, he resigned following the Gaisal train disaster. As Minister of Railways, he brought in widespread reforms[14] such as internet ticket booking facility, opening a record number of railway ticket booking counters and introducing the tatkal scheme for instant booking.

Later that year, he rejoined the Union Cabinet as Minister for Agriculture. From 2001 to May 2004, he was the Union Minister for Railways again. In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, he contested elections from two places, when he got elected from Nalanda but lost from his traditional constituency, Barh.

Nitish Kumar's government also initiated bicycle and meal programs – the government gave bicycles to girls who stayed in school – which saw Bihar getting huge number of girls into schools and fall in school drop out rates.

In 2010, Nitish Kumar's party swept back to power along with its allies (at that time), Bharatiya Janata Party. On 26 November 2010, Nitish Kumar took oath as a Chief Minister of Bihar. This was his second consecutive term as Chief Minister of Bihar. In a keenly fought contest, Nitish Kumar led JDU-BJP combine won with four-fifth majority. NDA won 206 seats while RJD won 22 seats. No party there has won enough seats to represent the opposition in the state assembly, which requires at least 25 seats to become eligible to represent the main opposition party. For the first time, electorates witnessed high turnout of women and young voters, while this was declared as the fairest election in Bihar, with no bloodshed or poll violence.

Resignation

On 17 May 2014, he submitted his resignation to the Governor of Bihar - a day after his party fared poorly in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, winning just 2 seats against 20 seats in the previous election. Kumar resigned, taking the moral responsibility of his party's poor performance in the election and Jitan Ram Manjhi took over.

2015 Bihar elections

Nitish Kumar again assumed office of the Chief Minister on 22 February 2015. The 2015, Bihar Legislative Assembly election was considered to be his toughest election. Nitish Kumar's JD(U) along with Lalu Prasad's RJD, Congress, Samajwadi Party and Nationalist Congress Party formed the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) to counter the BJP in Bihar. Later, Samajwadi Party and NCP decided to walk out of Grand Alliance and contest the Bihar election on their own due to seat sharing issues. On 3 August 2015, Nitish Kumar announced that he would not contest Bihar assembly polls. He campaigned aggressively in the Bihar elections for the Grand Alliance. A part of his campaign was focused on countering the allegations raised by Narendra Modi and the BJP. Finally, the Grand Alliance won the Assembly election by a huge margin of 178 seats against 58 seats of the BJP and its allies. Lalu Prasad Yadav's RJD emerged as the largest party by winning 80 seats and Nitish Kumar's JD(U) came second, winning 71 seats. He was sworn in as Chief Minister on 20 November 2015 for a record fifth time and Lalu Prasad Yadav's youngest son Tejashwi Yadav became the fourth Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar.

Manoj Tiwari (born February 1973) is a singer, actor, television presenter, music director and BJP MP from Delhi. He has acted in the Bhojpuri genre of the Indian film industry and in 2005 was reported to be one of the two leading male stars of that genre.

Tiwari is also involved in politics, having contested the 2009 national elections for the Samajwadi Party. He won the North East Delhi (Lok Sabha constituency) in the 2014 Indian general elections from BJP.He is also the captain of " Bhojpuri Dabangs" in CCL.

Early Life

One of the six children of Chandra Deo Tiwari and Lalita Devi, his birthplace is Atarwalia, a small village in Kaimur district of Bihar.

Film Career

Prior to Tiwari's involvement in cinema, he had spent ten years working as a singer.

In 2004, he took a role in the film "Sasura Bada Paise Wala". The BBC reported that the production costs of US$ 65,000 were turned into takings of US$ 3 million, while The Hindu reported a ₹ 3.5–4 billion cost resulting in takings of ₹45 million. Indian Express reported a figure of ₹65 million as the takings. The Bihar Jharkhand Motion Picture Association saw this production as being a turning point for Bhojpuri cinema. He followed this with the successful films Daroga Babu I Love You and Bandhan Tute Na. Tiwari is reported to have said in 2005 that although the Bhojpuri genre had generally kept to its traditional storylines, "Gone are the double entendres, thin story lines and poor technical quality. Films have been slick and producers are willing to put in close to Rs 8 million in a film because the returns are not bad,"

The BBC reported in 2005 that Tiwari and Ravi Kishan were the biggest male stars in the flourishing Bhojpuri cinema market and that Tiwari was able to charge US$ 90,000 per film.

In 2010, Tiwari was a contestant in the fourth season of reality television show Bigg Boss. He was reported by Rediff to say that his wife, Rani, "is angry with me" because she suspected him of having an affair with a fellow contestant, Shweta Tiwari, and that "Arbaaz Khan tweeted and asked people to vote for Ashmit Patel. I felt little bad about this because his brother is the host of the show and he is asking people to vote. I somehow didn't understand that angle." When asked whether he thought that the votes were manipulated, he said "I am bound by my contract so I can't comment on this. But it is little hard to believe that I got lesser votes than Ashmit. I guess viewers enjoy watching Veena Malik and Ashmit's fake romance. I really don't understand why the channel is still keeping them inside the house." NDTV reported a similar story, adding that he had been separated from his wife and child for some months. Tiwari had previously worked with Shweta Tiwari in two films, Kab Aibu Anganwa Hamaar and Ae Bahuji ke Sister. By mid-2011 he and his wife, were involved in divorce proceedings regarding their eleven-year marriage.

Tiwari continues to record music and release new albums. He performs around the world in concert. He released an album, Hey Mahadev, in 2009 that fused traditional music with contemporary genres. He is listed as being music director for numerous releases. Manoj Tiwari also sang the hit song "Jiya Ho Bihar Ke Lala Jiya Tu Haazar Sala" in Anurag Kashyap's film Gangs of Wasseypur.

In 2008, the Dutch government issued a 44 Euro-cent postal stamp on singer-actor Manoj Tiwari.

Political Career

In 2009, Tiwari contested elections for the 15th Lok Sabha as a candidate for the Samajwadi Party in the Gorakhpur constituency. He had been offered a choice of three constituencies and Zeenews reported him as saying that he was not "a political person but was concerned for the development of Poorvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh." His interest was in developing that region and he had "submitted my development proposals to industrialist Anil Ambani". He lost to Adityanath Yogi.

His house in Mumbai was allegedly attacked in November 2009 by a group of people angry with remarks that they claimed he had made about Shiv Sena. Tiwari denied having made any comment on the matter, which revolved around a dispute between the Shiv Sena leader, Bal Thackeray, and the Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar.

In January 2011 Mid-Day reported that the BJP might invite him to join their party and that the association with him would assist their electoral efforts among North Indians. Tiwari dismissed the story as being hypothetical, although he would consider his options should an invitation emerge. He had been seen with BJP leaders at an event and had expressed admiration for Shatrughan Sinha, the BJP MP for Patna.

Tiwari was among the first celebrities to make an appearance in support of Ramdev's hunger strike at the Ramlila Ground protests on 4 June 2011. He sang various patriotic songs to the gathered protesters and claimed that he had ceased filming for a month in order to join the protest. In August of that year he was involved in protests surrounding the arrest of Anna Hazare, of whose popular anti-corruption movement he approved.

He won the North East Delhi (Lok Sabha constituency) in the 2014 Indian general elections from BJP

Shatrughan Sinha (born Shatrughan Prasad Sinha on 9 December 1945) is an Indian film actor turned politician. Apart from being member of Lok Sabha (2009-2014, 2014-2019) and Rajya Sabha twice he was also Union Cabinet Minister of Health and Family Welfare (Jan 2003-May 2004) and Shipping (Aug. 2004) in Atal bihari vajpayee government. He was elected to 15th Lok Sabha in 2009. In 2016, a biography on him Anything but Khamosh was released.

Sinha was born in Patna, Bihar in a Kayastha family to Bhubaneswari Prasad Sinha & Shyama Devi Sinha. He is the youngest of four brothers — Ram, Lakshman, Bharat and himself. He was educated in Patna Science College. He is an alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India Pune. Currently there's a scholarship being awarded on his name in the institute to Diploma students. He moved to Mumbai where he started his career in the film industry. He is married to former Miss India Poonam Sinha.

Acting career

Shatrughan Sinha's first acting opportunity was playing a Pakistani military officer in Dev Anand's Prem Pujari. Subsequently, he got a small role as a police inspector in Mohan Sehgal’s Sajan in 1969. The release of Prem Pujari was delayed, so his first released film was Sajan. He played supporting roles in many films before appearing in Gulzar’s Mere Apne in 1971. He was cast along with Poonam Sinha then Komal in the movie "Sabak" (1973).

He later appeared in Dulal Guha’s Dost in 1974 and in Kalicharan in 1976.

Sinha was selected by Rediff as one of the most unconventional actors in Hindi cinema (the others being Ajay Devgan, Amitabh Bachchan, Irfan Khan, Rajnikant, Shahrukh Khan, and Sunil Shetty).

In 2008, he joined as a judge on The Great Indian Laughter Challenge show, season 4 on STAR One TV. On 3 October 2009, Sinha appeared on Sony Entertainment Television Asia's show Dus Ka Dum season 2 as host for a special episode. He is currently hosting Bhojpuri version of the popular game show Kaun Banega Crorepati on Mahuaa channel.

He portrayed Chief Minister N.T. Rama Rao in Ram Gopal Varma's Rakta Charitra.

Political career

Sinha is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He won the Patna Sahib Lok Sabha constituency in Bihar during the Indian general elections, 2009. He defeated another cinema celebrity Shekhar Suman. Out of a total of 552,293 votes polled, Sinha received 316,472 votes. He won the seat in the subsequent Indian general elections, 2014, as well.

He became a cabinet minister in the Third Vajpayee ministry from the 13th Lok Sabha, holding two portfolios, the department of Health and Family Welfare (Jan 2003-May 2004), and the department of shipping (August 2004). As of May 2006, he was appointed as the head of the BJP Culture and Arts Department.