Beni Prasad Verma: Steel
Indian National Congress, Lok Sabha, Gonda, UP
The 70-year-old Congress party member served as the PWD minister for Uttar Pradesh for many years and did a lot towards the development of the state and its roads. He played an instrumental role in the turnaround of UP Bridge Corporation. In 1996, he was elected to the 11th Lok Sabha from Kaiserganj constituency in UP. He served as the Union Communications Minster in Deve Gowda’s cabinet from 1996-98. He was re-elected to the Lok Sabha in 1998, 1999 and 2004 from the same constituency. He’s currently the Steel Minister in Manmohan Singh‘s cabinet.
V Kishore Chandra Deo: Tribal Affairs and Panchayati Raj
Indian National Congress, Araku, Andhra Pradesh
The 64-year-old has been elected to the Lok Sabha five times and has also held one term in the Rajya Sabha. He belongs to the Konda Dora scheduled tribe community, and hails from a family of tribal hill chiefs.
Fond of cooking, music and astrology, Deo was a Minister of State for Steel, Mines and Coal in the Central Cabinet in 1979-80. He has served on numerous parliamentary committees, and has been the Chairperson of several key parliamentary committees, including the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill that led to the historic ‘forest rights’ Act.
Dinesh Trivedi: Railways
Dinesh Trivedi got Railways while Jayanthi Natarajan got Environment. Images from ibnlive
Trinamool Congress, Lok Sabha, Barrackpur, West Bengal
An MBA from the University of Texas, the 61-year-old has been actively fighting criminalisation in politics. An allrounder, Trivedi has served as a member in several committes like finance, commerce, civil aviation, public undertakings, SEZ, petitions, etc. He’s the new Railway minister in the Union Cabinet.
Jairam Ramesh: Rural Development
Indian National Congress, Adilabad, Andhra Pradesh
The former Environment minister will now handle the rural development portfolio. The MIT and IIT Bombay grad, Ramesh participated in India’s economic reforms in 1991 and 1997. He was advisor to the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission in 1992-94. The 57-year-old, who hails from the Adilabad constituency in Andhra Pradesh, served as the Minister of State for Commerce and Industry from January 2006 to February 2009. He was the Minister of State for Power in the UPA government from April 2008 to February 2009.
Srikant Jena: Statistics and Programme Implementation and Minister of State in the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers
Indian National Congress, Balasore, Orissa
The 61-year-old has handled portfolios like Parliamentary Affairs and Tourism in the past (1996). An avid reader, Jena last held the position of the Union Minister of State, Chemicals and Fertilisers.
Jayanthi Natarajan: Environment
Indian National Congress
A lawyer by profession, Natarajan was first noticed by Rajiv Gandhi in the 1980s. She was first elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1986 and re-elected in 1992. During the 90′s Natarajan and other leaders from Tamil Nadu who were unhappy with Narasimha Rao founded the Tamil Manila Congress under GK Moopanar. Natarajan resigned from the Rajya Sabha and was re-elected in 1997 as a TMC member. With Moopanar’s death the TMC leaders decided to merge with the Congress. Natarajan was noticed by Sonia Gandhi and appointed spokesperson for the party.
Paban Singh Ghatowar: Development of North Eastern Region
Indian National Congress, Lok Sabha, Dibrugarh
Re-elected to 15th Lok Sabha (5th term), was the Chief Whip, Congress Parliamentary Party, Lok Sabha, Member, Business Advisory Committee, Member, Committee on Energy, Member, Committee of Privileges, Member, Committee on Subordinate Legislation, Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Petroleum and Chemicals.
Gurudas Kamat: Drinking Water and Sanitation
Indian National Congress, Lok Sabha, Mumbai-North-West
Re-elected to 15th Lok Sabha (5th term), on 1 February 2009 became Union Minister of State, Communications and Information Technology, on 1 January 2011 became Union Minister of State, Home Affairs.
Sudip Bandopadhyaya: Health and Family Welfare
Trinamool Congress, Lok Sabha, Kolkata Uttar
Re-elected to the Lok Sabha for the third term, on 1 January 2009 became Member, Committee on Finance and on 1 March 2009 became Member, Consultative Committee on Defence.
Charan Das Mahant: Agriculture and Food Processing Industries
Indian National Congress, Lok Sabha, Korba
Re-elected to 15th Lok Sabha (3rd term), Member, Committee on Science & Technology, Environment & Forests, Chairman, Joint Committee on Salaries and Allowances of Members of Parliament, Member, Consultative Committee on Coal, Member, Central Rural Development Council.
Jitendra Singh: Home Affairs
Indian National Congress, Alwar
Elected to 15th Lok Sabha , Member, Committee on Public Accounts, Member, Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, Lok Sabha.
Milind Deora: Communications and Information Technology
Indian National Congress, Lok Sabha, Mumbai South
Re-elected to 15th Lok Sabha (2nd term), Member, Committee on Information Technology, Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Member, Committee on Estimates, Union Cabinet Minister, Corporate Affairs.
Rajiv Shukla: Parliamentary Affairs
Indian National Congress, Rajya Sabha
April 2000 Elected to Rajya Sabha April 2000-2001 Member, Consultative Committee for the Ministry of External Affairs April 2000 – Feb. 2004 Member, Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Finance Jan. 2001- Feb. 2004 Member, Committee on Information Technology March 2001 – June 2004 Member, Press Council of India Jan. 2002-Feb. 2004 Member, Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Civil Aviation Aug. 2004 onwards Member, Committee on Petroleum and Natural Gas Member, House Committee Oct. 2004 onwards Member, Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Commerce and Industry Sept. 2006 onwards Member, Business Advisory Committee.
Vilasrao Deshmukh: Science and Technology and Earth Sciences
Indian National Congress, Rajya Sabha
April 2008 Reelected to Rajya Sabha, has been Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions (Additional charge), Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Science and Technology Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Earth Sciences Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Minister of State in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs.
M Veerappa Moily: Corporate Affairs
Indian National Congress, Lok Sabha, Chikkballapur
Elected to 15th Lok Sabha, Union Cabinet Minster, Law and Justice, has represented the Government of India in projects with World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB), Reserve Bank of India and in the Planning Commission.
Anand Sharma: Commerce and Industry; and additional charge of Textiles
Indian National Congress, Rajya Sabha
Elected to Rajya Sabha in August 2004, has been Member, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence Member, Consultative Committee for the Ministry of External Affairs Member, Joint Committee on Salaries and Allowances of Members of Parliament, Member, Business Advisory Committee, Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs, Minister of Commerce and Industry.
Pawan Kumar Bansal: Parliamentary Affairs and additional charge of Water Resources
Indian National Congress, Lok Sabha, Chandigarh
Re-elected to 15th Lok Sabha (4th term), has been Union Cabinet Minister, Parliamentary Affairs, Union Cabinet Minister, Water Resources, Union Cabinet Minister, Science and Technology, Union Cabinet Minister, Earth Sciences.
Salman Khursheed: Law and Justice and additional charge of Minority Affairs
Indian National Congress, Lok Sabha, Farrukhabad
Re-elected to 15th Lok Sabha (2nd term), has been Union Minister of State (Independent Charge), Corporate Affairs; Minority Affairs, Union Cabinet Minister, Water Resources and Minority Affairs.
E Ahamed: External Affairs and Human Resource Development
Muslim League, Lok Sabha, Malappuram
Re-elected to 15th Lok Sabha (6th term), Leader, Muslim League Kerala State Committee Parliamentary Party, Lok Sabha, has been Union Minister of State, Railways, Member, Parliamentary Forum on Population and Public Health and Union Minister of State, External Affairs.
Mukul Roy: Shipping
Trinamool Congress, Kanchrapara, West Bengal
The 57-year-old Trinamool Congress MP from Kanchrapara, West Bengal, has been in the news for all the wrong reasons over the last couple of days. The twin train accidents in Uttar Pradesh and Assam earned Roy much flak from the media and he was promptly removed as the Railway minister on Tuesday. He’s now the Minister of State for Shipping.
Ashwani Kumar: Planning; Science and Technology and Earth Sciences
Indian National Congress, Punjab
The 58-year-old earlier served as the Minister of State in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and Minister of State in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in the UPA Government till 2009.
V Narayanasamy: Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions; and PMO
Indian National Congress, Puducherry
The 64-year-old has earlier served as a Minister of State, Culture, Planning and Parliamentary Affairs.
Harish Rawat: Agriculture and Food Processing Industries; Parliamentary Affairs
Lok Sabha, Indian National Congress, Hardwar, Uttarakhand
The 64-year-old studied law before taking the plunge into politics from Almora constituency by defeating BJP heavyweight Murli Manohar Joshi in 1980. He previously served as a Minister of State in the Union Cabinet in the Ministry of Labor and Employment.
