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Ananthkumar
Mr. Ananthkumar shot into limelight in his student days itself, closely
associated with the BJP's student wing. A B.A, L.L from Karnataka University,
thirty-eight-year-old Mr. Ananthkumar, the BJP's national secretary, was
first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1996 and repeated his feat in the recent
polls with a thumping margin of 1.8 lakh votes from the Bangalore South
constituency.
Sikander
Bakht
External Affairs Minister in the previous short- lived BJP government
in 1996, 80-year-old Mr. Sikander Bakht is a prominent Muslim leader in
the BJP.
Epitome
of the culture of the old world Delhi, Mr. Bakht's entire political life
is rooted in the nation's Capital. A Cabinet Minister in the Janata government
of 1977, Mr. Bakht has been a member of both Houses of Parliament.
S.
S. Barnala
With a vast reservoir of political expertise gathered over four decades,
Mr. Surjit Singh Barnala, once again step in for a larger role in Central
politics.
An accomplished
lawyer and painter, Mr. Barnala was the co- architect of the Rajiv-Longowal
Punjab Accord and instrumental in establishing peace in the trouble-torn
State after Operation Bluestar.
Born on
October 21, 1925 at village Atali in Gurgaon, now in Haryana, Mr. Barnala
has the distinction of heading Punjab during its most difficult period.
Yashwant
Sinha
A former bureaucrat, Mr. Yashwant Sinha, is among the liberals in the
BJP. Influenced by Jayaprakash Narayan's socialist movement of the mid-seventies,
Mr. Sinha took to active politics and joined the Janata Dal in 1984 after
resigning from his post as joint secretary in the Ministry of Shipping
and Transport. He was for the first time elected to the Rajya Sabha in
1988 and rose to prominence as a spokesman of the Dal during the 1989
Lok Sabha elections. He made news when he walked out of the swearing-in
ceremony, in a fit of pique, on being named a minister of state by Mr.
V.P. Singh.
M.
M. Joshi
Perceived by adversaries as a hardliner, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi is an
erudite man of tremendous political sagacity who rose from the ranks of
the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to that of the Bharatiya Janata Party
president during one of its most crucial phases.
The chain
of events like the Mandir-Masjid and Mandal issues which demolished the
Janata Dal Government of the former Prime Minister, Mr. V. P. Singh, saw
BJP's 'swadeshi' man projected life-size on the political firmament.
V.
K. Ramamurthy
The Tamizhaga Rajiv Congress (TRC) president, Mr. Vazhapadi K. Ramamurthy,
58, started his political career as a Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) activist
in his student days and turned a Congressman in 1967. Since then he has
switched loyaities repeatedly within the Congress fold.
Born on
January 18, 1940, he studied to be a lawyer, but was not interested in
a legal career. After about eight years in DK. he came under the spell
of late K. Kamaraj in 1967. He continued to be a Kamaraj loyalist after
the 1969 Congress split, but was won over by Indira Gandhi after the 1971
Lok Sabha elections.
Madanlal
Khurana
The former Chief Minister of Delhi, Mr. Madanlal Khurana gets a berth
in the Cabinet after an active career in Delhi State politics.
Delhi's
first Chief Minister, after the Union Territory got an Assembly Mr. Khurana
had to relinquish his post after being named in the hawala scam. He was
only recently cleared by the courts. A businessman by vocation, Mr. Khurana
entered active politics in 1965 and became Delhi's BJP president in 1986.
He became the party's all-India secretary in 1990.
R.
Kumaramangalam
Mr. Rangarajan Kumaramangalam, an active student and youth leader-turned-parliamentarian,
popularly called "Ranga", is a third generation politician with his late
grandfather, P. Subbaroyan, and late father and former Union Minister
Mohan Kumaramangalam, being well known in the national political arena.
His joining
the BJP on the even of the 1998 hustings raised eyebrows in the leftist
circles as his family was known for their left leanings.
Born on
May 12, 1952, this 46-year-old politician plunged into active politics
in 1975 when he became a prominent youth Congress activist.
S.
R. Muthiah
An agriculturist by profession, 53-year-old Sedapatti R. Muthiah, named
the AIADMK group leader in the Lok Sabha, was Speaker of the Tamil Nadu
Assembly from 1991 to 1996, when he earned a reputation for being unduly
harsh on Opposition members.
A bitter
critic of the DMK and its leader, Mr. M. Karunanidhi and a staunch loyalist
of party supremo, Ms. Jayalalitha, Mr. Muthiah is not new to the Lok Sabha,
having been elected in 1989. He was leader of the AIADMK parliamentary
group till 1991.
Buta
Singh
Sardar Buta Singh, Home Minister in the Rajiv Gandhi government in late
1980's, returns to the Cabinet after nearly a decade.
White bearded,
64-year old, Mr. Buta Singh brings with him rich administrative experience,
having been a minister in the Congress government from 1974 to 1989.
Sushma
Swaraj
Heading the high-profile Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in the
previous BJP government, Ms. Sushma Swaraj was active in Haryana State
politics from 1977 to 1990 and held the post of a Cabinet Minister in
the State.
Elected
to the Rajya Sabha in 1990, this former socialist made her maiden entry
into the Lok Sabha in 1996 from South Delhi and retained the seat in the
recent poll.
Articulate
both in Hindi and English, Ms. Sushma Swaraj is one of the leading BJP
speakers in Parliament. Endowed with the face of the quintessential housewife,
Ms. Sushma is a great hit with the common people of the Capital.
George
Fernandes
Militant trade Union leader and stormy petrel of socialist movement Mr
George Fernandes, joins the BJP-led coalition as a Minister after guiding
his Samata Party in alliance with BJP to a resounding electoral success
in Bihar.
First elected
to the Lok Sabha in 1967, Mr. Fernandes was general secretary of Samyukta
Socialist Party in 1969-71 and chairman of Socialist Party in 1971-77.
He was also president of Indian Railwaymen's Federation from 1973 to 1977.
Born on June 3, 1930, Mr. Fernandes made headlines by getting elected
to the Lok Sabha in 1977 from behind the bars.
R.
K. Hegde
A suave politician gone bitter at the treatment by the leadership of the
Janata dal which he had founded and built, Mr. Ramakrishna Hegde has played
a long innings in politics right from the grassroots as a Congress worker
in Uttara Kapnada district of Karntaka to the Chief Minister of the State
Coming from the family of agriculturists who had sacrificed a lot during
the freedom struggle, Mr. Hegde has been a preacher of value- based politician
and turned an avenger after he was unceremoniously expelled from the Janata
Dal soon after Mr. H. D. Deve Gowda became the Prime Minister.
Born on
August 29, 1927 at Doddamare in Siddapur taluk of Uttara Kannada district.
Mr. Hegde has had a chequered political career spanning over 45 years.
Satyanarayan
Jatiya
Active in politics since his student days 52year-old Satyanarayan Jatiya
from Madhy Pradesh directly makes it to the Union Cabinet with his induction
into the Vajpayee Government. Mr. Jatiya was first elected to the Madhya
Pradesh Assembly in 1977 and entered the Lok Sabha in 1980.
After a
gap in 1984, Mr. Jatiya returned to the Lok Sabha in 1989 and has retained
his seat in the following elections in 1991, 1996 and 1998.
Ram
Jethmalani
A maverick politician and brilliant criminal lawyer, who had defended
the accued in the Indira Gandhi assassination case, Mr Ram Jeth malani
makes his second entry in to the Union Cabinet, having been Minister for
Law and Justice in the 13day old BJP Government in May 1996.
Born in
Sind, now in Pakistan, in 1923, Mr. Jethmalani was first elected to the
Lok Sabha in 1977 and retained his seat in the following general elections
in 1980.
M.
Thambidurai
The former Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker, Mr. M. Thambidurai, makes a return
to Parliament, after being in the wilderness since 1991.
First elected
to the lower House from Dharmapuri district in 1984, he almost missed
his re-nomination in 1989, but was allotted the Karur seat at the last
minute in a change in seat sharing arrangements with Congress(I). He won
the seat comfortably.
Nitish
Kumar
An engineer by training, Mr. Nitish Kumar joins the Union Ministry for
the second time after being Minister of State for Agriculture and Cooperation
in the V P. Singh Ministry in 1989-90.
Once considered
the closest friend of the Bihar strongman, Mr. Laloo Prasad Yadav. Mr.
Kumar fell out with him on both policy matters and his style of functioning,
to chart an independent course by forming the Samata Party along with
Mr. George Fernandes.
Naveen
Patnaik
The Biju Janata Dal leader, Mr. Naveen Patnaik, took to active politics
after the death of his father and former Orissa Chief Minister Biju Patnaik.
An alumni of the Doon School, Mr. Patnaik entered the portals of Parliamentary
the first time when he was elected in a by-election from Aska parliamentary
constituency to the 11th Lok Sabha. In the run-up to the recent general
elections, Mr. Patnaik parted company with the parent Janata Dal and formed
Biju Janata Dal. A bachelor, Mr. Patnaik was born on October 16, 1946
at Cuttack.
Suresh
Prabhu
A high-profile banker, 45-year-old Suresh Prabhu was Minister for Industry
in the 1996 BJP Government.
Born in
Mumbai in 1953, Shiv Sena's Mr. Prabhu proved himself a forceful speaker
on Finance, Industry and Commerce in the 11th Lok Sabha to which he was
elected from Rajapur, defeating Janata Dal veteran, Mr. Madhu Dandavate.
Kanshi
Ram Rana
A Backward Class leader from Gujarat, Mr. Kanshi Ram Rana, made his debut
in the Centre today when he was inducted as Cabinet Minister.
A lawyer,
journalist, writer and social worker, this is the third time round for
Mr. Rana in the Lok Sabha.
The founder
and ex-editor of monthly, Rana Jagat, he was a member of Gujarat Assembly
from 1975-80.
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