NEW DELHI: Arun Jaitley, who has been divested of the Defence portfolio, has once again taken up the mantle of Information and Broadcasting Minister – a post he had held when A B Vajpayee was Prime Minister – in addition to Finance and Corporate Affairs.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has thus upgraded the post of I&B Minister, which has been held by Ministers of State with Independent Charge under Vajpayee, Dr Manmohan Singh and Modi.
Jaitley will also have a Minister of State to assist him in Information and Broadcasting – Col. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.
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Singer and film personality, Babul Supriyo, also finds a berth in the cabinet as Minister of State for Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation.
Former I&B Minister, Prakash Javadekar, will continue to retain the Environment and Forests portfolio.
Currently a Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat, Jaitley is a senior advocate of the Supreme Court. He had commenced his political career with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP). He has been a member of the national executive of BJP since 1991. After the BJP led National Democratic Alliance came to power under Atal Behari Vajpayee, Jaitley was appointed Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting (Independent Charge) on 13 October 1999.
Babul Supriyo, a known playback singer, has worked in Bollywood as well as in the Cinema of West Bengal. He has also worked as a playback singer in several Oriya films including many Indian languages. He was declared a BJP Candidate from Asansol in West Bengal for the 2014 elections and won by over 74,000 votes.
