Cabinet Ministers
Nitin Gadkari (BJP): Road Transport and Highways Shipping
Mr. Gadkari hails from Nagpur in Vidarbha and has been elected as an MP from this constituency. He was the former BJP president (2009-2013) and is close to the RSS. Mr. Gadkari had earlier served as the PWD Minister in the Shiv Sena-BJP government in Maharashtra. He was credited with implementing several key infrastructure projects during his stint including the Mumbai-Pune expressway and major flyovers in Mumbai. Mr. Gadkari also heads a business empire with interests in cooperative sugar factories and power plants in Vidarbha. He came under a cloud in 2012, with questions being raised about the dubious funding to Purti Power and Sugar, which he had once founded. He lost his post as BJP president as a result of this controversy in 2013.
Gopinath Munde (BJP): Rural Development, Panchayati Raj & Drinking Water and Sanitation
Mr. Munde is a two-term MP from Beed district in Maharashtra’s Marathwada region. He had earlier been elected five times as an MLA from the same area. He has served as Deputy Leader of the BJP in the Lok Sabha. Mr. Munde was Deputy Chief Minister in the Shiv Sena-BJP government in Maharashtra from 1995-2000. He is the brother-in-law of the late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan. Mr. Munde got involved in politics during his student days and was part of the ABVP and Jan Sangh. He later went on to head the Maharashtra BJP. Mr. Munde controls several sugar factories in the Marathwada region.
Anant Geete (Shiv Sena): Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises
Mr. Geete is a six-term MP from Raigad in Maharashtra’s Konkan region. He has earlier served as Minister of State for Finance in the NDA Government (2002). He was later appointed Union Power Minister (2002-2004). He has served as Chief Whip of the Shiv Sena parliamentary party. Mr. Geete has also been part of several parliamentary committees.
Ministers of State
Piyush Goyal (BJP): Power (Independent Charge), Coal (Independent Charge) & New and Renewable Energy (Independent Charge)
Mr. Goyal is a Member of Parliament from the Rajya Sabha in Maharashtra. He is the national treasurer of the BJP. A forrmer investment banker, Mr. Goyal has strong links to India Inc. He comes from a BJP family and his parents are both party veterans. His father, the late Vedprakash Goyal was Union Minister for Shipping and the National Treasurer of the BJP. His mother, Chandrakanta Goyal was a three-term MLA from Mumbai.
Prakash Javdekar (BJP): Information and Broadcasting (Independent Charge), Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Independent Charge) & Parliamentary Affairs
Mr. Javdekar is one of the BJP’s national spokerspersons and is a member of the Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra. He hails from Pune in Western Maharashtra and got involved in politics through the ABVP as a student and was also later part of the Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha. He was among those whose complaint to the Central Vigilance Commission led to a CBI inquiry into the coal scam.
Raosaheb Danve (BJP): Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
Mr. Danve is a four-term MP from Jalna in Marathwada. Has also been an MLA twice from the same region. He is a farmer’s leader and runs a cooperative sugar factory. Mr. Danve began his political innings as an activist of the Jan Sangh. He heads a cooperative sugar factory and cooperative bank in the district. He was earlier president of the Jalna wing of the BJP.
