Uttar Pradesh secured 10 ministerial positions in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government but managed only two seats in the Union Cabinet.
Uttar Pradesh
1. Hardeep Singh Puri
Rank: Cabinet
Portfolio:
Born on 15 February 1952, Hardeep Singh Puri, held the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas as well as the Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs in the Indian government. Notably, he is the longest-serving Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs in history.
Puri is a 1974-batch Indian Foreign Service officer and from 2009 to 2013, he held the position of Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations.
In January 2014, Puri joined the BJP and later became a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha, representing Uttar Pradesh, starting in November 2020. Before that, in May 2019, he was appointed as the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Housing and Urban Affairs and Civil Aviation, and Minister of State for Commerce and Industry.
His earlier roles include serving as the chairman of the United Nations Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee from January 2011 to February 2013. Following his diplomatic career, he joined the International Peace Institute as a senior advisor in June 2013.
2. Rajnath Singh
Rank: Cabinet
Portfolio:
Born on 10 July 1951, Rajnath Singh served as the 29th Defence Minister of India from 2019 to 2024. Since 2014, he has been the Deputy Leader of the House in the Lok Sabha. A seasoned leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Singh has also held the position of the party’s president twice, from 2005 to 2009 and again from 2013 to 2014. His political journey began as a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Swayamsevak.
Singh clinched his third consecutive victory in the prestigious Lucknow Lok Sabha seat, winning by a margin of 1,35,159 votes on 4 June 2024.
In his extensive political career, Singh served as the 19th Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh from 2000 to 2002. He was the Cabinet Minister for Road Transport and Highways under the Vajpayee government from 1999 to 2000 and later as the Minister of Agriculture from 2003 to 2004. From 2014 to 2019, he held the position of the 30th Home Minister in the First Modi Ministry, notable for being the first person born post-1947 to hold this office.
Singh’s political roots are deeply embedded in Uttar Pradesh, where he initially began his political career. He led the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha from 1988 to 1990 and was elected to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly from the Haidergarh constituency, serving twice as Chief Minister. He has been a Member of Parliament for the Lok Sabha from Lucknow since 2014, previously representing Ghaziabad from 2009 to 2014. Additionally, Singh served in the Rajya Sabha from 1994 to 2001 and again from 2002 to 2008.
3. Jayant Choudhary
Rank: Minister of State (Independent Charge)
Portfolio:
Chaudhary Jayant Singh, commonly known as Jayant Chaudhary, born on 27 December 1978, is currently serving as a Member of the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh since 2022. He previously represented Mathura in the 15th Lok Sabha. Jayant Chaudhary is the National Chairman of the Rashtriya Lok Dal and, on 1 March, 2024, his party officially joined the NDA.
Jayant Chaudhary was born in Dallas, Texas, USA, to Chaudhary Ajit Singh and Radhika Singh, hailing from a Hindu Jat family of the Tewatia (Teotia) Shivi-vanshi clan. His ancestral roots are in Bhatona, Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh. He is the grandson of Chaudhary Charan Singh, the former prime minister of India.
4. Jitin Prasada
Rank: Minister of State
Portfolio:
Born on 29 November 1973, Jitin Prasada represented the Dhaurahra Lok Sabha constituency in Lakhimpur Kheri district, Uttar Pradesh, in the 15th Lok Sabha, securing a victory with a margin of 184,509 votes.
Prasada secured victory in the Pilibhit Lok Sabha constituency clinching the seat with a substantial lead. He is also the serving Uttar Pradesh PWD minister.
On 9 June 2021, Prasada left the Congress and joined the BJP, a move announced in the presence of senior BJP leader Piyush Goyal.
5. Pankaj Chaudhary
Rank: Minister of State
Portfolio:
Born on 15 November 1964 to the late Bhagwan Prasad Chaudhary, he hails from a Kurmi family. He holds a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree from Gorakhpur University.
He won from the Maharajgan seat this year.
Chaudhary’s political journey began with his election to the 10th Lok Sabha in 1991. He was re-elected to the 11th Lok Sabha in 1996 and the 12th Lok Sabha in 1998. However, he faced a setback in the 1999 General Elections, losing to Akhilesh Singh of the Samajwadi Party. He regained his seat in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.
In the 2009 elections, he was defeated by Harsh Vardhan of the Congress from Maharajganj. Undeterred, he made a strong comeback in 2014, winning the same constituency and securing his place in the 16th Lok Sabha. Following a Cabinet reshuffle, he was appointed Union Minister of State for Finance in the second Modi ministry.
6. BL Verma
Rank: Minister of State
Portfolio:
BL Verma served as the Minister of State for the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region and the Ministry of Co-operation in the Government of India. He hails from Ujhani in the Badaun district of Uttar Pradesh. Verma is a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of the Indian Parliament, and holds the position of State Vice-President of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttar Pradesh. Additionally, he is the National Vice-President of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s OBC Morcha.
Since 2018, Verma has also been the Chairman of the U.P. State Construction and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited.
7. Anupriya Patel
Rank: Minister of State
Portfolio:
Born on 28 April 1981, Anupriya Singh Patel is the President of the Apna Dal (Soneylal) party since 2016 and served as the Minister of State for Commerce and Industry in the Government of India since 7 July 2021. Patel has represented Mirzapur in the Lok Sabha since 2014. Previously, she held the position of Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare from 2016 to 2019.
Patel won in the Lok Sabha elections in Mirzapur with a margin of 37,810 votes against SP’s Ramesh Chand Bind.
Before her tenure in the Lok Sabha, Anupriya Patel was elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly for the Rohaniya constituency in Varanasi. During her time in the state legislature, she contested elections in alliance with the Peace Party of India and Bundelkhand Congress from 2012 to 2014.
8. Kamlesh Paswan
Rank: Minister of State
Portfolio:
Kamlesh Paswan served as a Member of Parliament in the 17th Lok Sabha, representing the Bansgaon constituency of Uttar Pradesh. He is affiliated with the BJP.
Paswan emerged victorious, securing 56.41% of the votes and defeating BSP’s Sadal Prasad with a margin of 1,53,468 votes in the Bansgaon parliamentary seat.
Before his tenure in the Lok Sabha, Paswan was a member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly, elected from the Maniram constituency as a candidate of the Samajwadi Party. In 2009, he transitioned to the Bharatiya Janata Party and contested the Lok Sabha elections, securing a seat in the 15th Lok Sabha from Bansgaon. He continued his parliamentary journey as a member of the 16th Lok Sabha.
9. SP Singh Baghel
Rank: Minister of State
Portfolio:
Born on 21 June 1960, Satya Pal Singh Baghel is a BJP leader who served as a Member of Parliament in the 17th Lok Sabha representing Agra.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, Baghel won from Agra SC reserved seat by a margin of 2.71 lakh votes.
Baghel’s political journey includes three terms in the Lok Sabha with the Samajwadi Party, where he was elected from Jalesar, Uttar Pradesh, in 1998, 1999 and 2004. His tenure with the Samajwadi Party ended with his suspension, leading him to contest unsuccessfully twice as a Bahujan Samaj Party candidate. In 2014, Baghel was elected to the Rajya Sabha but faced defeat in the subsequent election to a BJP candidate.
On 3 July 2015, he was appointed president of the BJP’s OBC Morcha. In 2017, Baghel transitioned to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly as a BJP member. He was elected to the Lok Sabha from Agra in the 2019 elections, continuing his affiliation with the BJP.
10. Kirti Vardhan Singh
Rank: Minister of State
Portfolio:
Born on March 1, 1966, Kirti Vardhan Singh served as the Member of Parliament for the Gonda constituency in the Lok Sabha. Widely known by his alias Raja Bhaiya, he is associated with the former Taluqdari of Mankapur.
He emerged victorious in Uttar Pradesh’s Gonda constituency defeating Samajwadi Party’s Shreya Verma by a vote margin of 46,224.
He previously served in the 12th and 14th Lok Sabha as a member of the Samajwadi Party. In March 2014, Singh resigned from the SP and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), contesting the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Gonda and winning seats in the 16th and 17th Lok Sabha. Known for his environmental advocacy, Singh won a landmark case in the Green Tribunal against the Uttar Pradesh State Government in July 2018, concerning illegal sand mining by local gangs in his constituency.
In the 2024 elections, Singh was re-elected to the 18th Lok Sabha from Gonda as a BJP candidate. He secured his victory with a significant margin of 47,000 votes, defeating Shreya Verma of the INDI Alliance (SP). His win solidifies his position as one of the 33 BJP MPs from Uttar Pradesh in this challenging election cycle.
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Modi 3.0: Uttar Pradesh gets 10 ministerial berths, but only two are of Cabinet rank
