2 ex-bureaucrats, 24 professionals join Union Council of Ministers

Two former bureaucrats, 13 lawyers, six doctors and five engineers have joined ‘professional ministers’ S Jaishankar, Hardeep Puri and RK Singh in the Union Council after Wednesday’s induction.
A keenly watched induction is that of Ashwani Vaishnaw, a 1994 batch IAS officer of Odisha cadre who once served as private secretary to former prime minister AB Vajpayee. He is believed to have been the brain behind the public-private-partnership framework in infrastructure projects then. The IIT Kanpur-Wharton School alumnus steered top MNCs in India besides setting up his own ventures before taking the political plunge.

JDU’s Ramchandra Prasad Singh, a Rajya Sabha MP, is also an ex-bureaucrat. The Uttar Pradesh cadre IAS officer and JNU alumnus had served as principal secretary to Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar.

Even Narayan Rane has a bureaucratic history. The former Maharashtra CM had served in the Income Tax Department from 1971 to 1984. Bhupender Yadav was a Supreme Court advocate and served as government counsel for important commissions. Meenakshi Lekhi is a Supreme Court lawyer while L Murugan practised in the Madras High court for 15 years before embarking on a political career.

Entrepreneur Rajeev Chandrashekhar also joins the professionals in the ministry with this expansion. Doctors inducted into the ministry include Munjapara Mahendrabhai, Lok Sabha MP for Surendranagar in Gujarat, who worked as cardiologist and professor of medicine for 30 years. Bankura MP Subhas Sarkar is a gynaecologist and board member of AIIMS Kalyani. Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad runs Dr Karad Multi Specialty Hospital & Research Centre in Aurangabad. MP from Dindori, Bharti Pawar, holds a degree in surgery and was a medical practitioner before joining public life.

Bishweswar Tudu was a senior engineer in Odisha’s water resources department before moving to a political career while Chauhan Devusinh earlier served as an engineer in All India Radio. Manipur MP Rajkumar Ranjan Singh was a geography professor for 40 years while Cooch Behar MP Nisith Pramanik was an assistant teacher in a primary school.