Bengaluru: Three Lok Sabha (LS) members and a Rajya Sabha (RS) member from Karnataka have made into the Union Council of Ministers in the second major Cabinet reshuffle effected by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Udupi-Chikmagalur MP Shobha Karandlaje, Bidar MP Bhagwanth Khuba, Chitradurga MP A.Narayanaswamy and RS MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar were sworn-in as Union Ministers of State in the Modi Cabinet at a function held at Rashtrapathi Bhavan in New Delhi yesterday.

Bengaluru North MP D.V. Sadananda Gowda, who was the Union Minister for Fertilisers and Chemicals, has been dropped while Dharwad MP & Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs,  Pralhad Joshi was retained.

Shobha has been made Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Khuba as Union Minister of State for New and Renewable Energy and Chemicals and Fertilisers, Naryanaswamy as Union Minister of State for  Social Justice and Empowerment and Rajeev Chandrasekhar as Union Minister of State in Skill Development and Entrepreneurship; and Electronics and Information Technology.

Lady luck favours

The induction of first-time MP Narayanaswamy surprised everyone since his name was not in the list of probables. The 64-year-old MP, a BA graduate, hails from Anekal in Bengaluru Rural and is actively involved in agriculture. He contested on BJP ticket from Chitradurga (reserved) Constituency in 2019 and won by a big margin. Narayanaswamy had been MLA from Anekal Assembly Constituency for four terms. He had worked as Social Welfare Minister in the BJP Government between 2010 and 2013.

Shobha entered the State Legislative Assembly from Yeshvanthpur Assembly Constituency in 2004. She had worked as Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister in the Yediyurappa Government in 2008; as Energy Minister in the Jagadish Shettar Government. Subsequently, she had joined Karnataka Janata Party (KJP) launched by Yediyurappa in 2012 and since returned to BJP fold. In 2014, she contested for LS polls from Udupi-Chikmagalur and won by a margin of 1.81 lakh votes. In 2019, Shobha had retained the seat.

Rajeev, a three-time RS member from Karnataka, is into media industry while Khuba has been representing Bidar LS Constituency since 2014. He has done BE in Mechanical Engineering from Siddaganga College.

Women in Modi Cabinet: The PM has inducted seven women in his Cabinet  —  Annapurnadevi, 51 years, Pratima Bhowmik, 52 years, Meenakshi Lekhi, 54 years, Darshana Vikram, 60 years, Shobha Karandlaje, 54 years, Anupriya Singh Patel, 40 years and Bharathi Pawar, 42 years. They are seen with Union Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Smriti Irani.