Pune: The city has got for the second time representation in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet. Rajya Sabha MP Prakash Javadekar took oath on Thursday as Cabinet Minister in Modi’s new Cabinet.
In Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA)’s first-term government, Javadekar was appointed Cabinet Minister on July 5, 2016 and assigned the HRD portfolio.
Javadekar enjoys the trust of both Modi and Shah. He also has backing of BJP’s ideological mentor, the RSS. Due to this quality, he was been given responsibility of Rajasthan, where the party fell from a historic mandate in 2013 to a distant second in the 2018 Assembly election.
In the Lok Sabha election, BJP won 24 seats out of total 25 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan.
Much earlier, Javadekar was elected to the Maharashtra Legislative Council from Pune Region Graduate Constituency in June 1990. He got re-elected in 1996 and continued till 2002. During this period, he actively raised issues of criminalisation of politics and corruption within and outside the House. He was also spokesperson of BJP, Maharashtra and acted as Chief of Publicity Wing of State BJP and produced six popular docu-dramas films for elections.
Javadekar was first elected to Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra in May 2008. He had served with distinction in Parliamentary Standing Committees of Defence, HRD and Consultative Committee of Power. He was also member of Committees on Paper Laid and Subordinate Legislation.
Javadekar was first inducted into the Council of Ministers led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 26, 2014 as Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Environment, Forest & Climate Change and Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. Additionally, he worked as a Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs until November 9, 2014. He concentrated thereafter as MoS (IC) of Environment, Forest and Climate Change until July 5, 2016.
