Meet the new Cabinet ministers

Two technocrats, two hard-boiled politicians are India's new Cabinet ministers...

From a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh pracharak to a Union minister, technocrat-turned politician Manohar Gopalkrishna Parrikar, left, a three-time Goa chief minister, is known for his administrative acumen and clean image.

An Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay graduate in metallurgical engineering and among the Bharatiya Janata Party's first members in Goa, 59-year-old Parrikar has been instrumental in raising his party's profile from just four members in the state assembly in 1994 to its present status as the ruling party with the highest number of seats in the state assembly.

Spearheaded by Parrikar, the BJP won 21 out of 40 seats in the 2012 assembly election. An unassuming man, Parrikar, who launched a campaign against the Congress-led government on the issue of illegal mining in the state, emerged as the rallying point for anti-Congress sentiments.

He was the first BJP chief minister who publicly declared last year that Narendra Modi, then the Gujarat chief minister, should be the BJP's face in the 2014 Lok Sabha election.

Parrikar stood by Modi during the crucial BJP meeting in Goa which named the Gujarat leader as the man in charge of the party's election campaign.

But Parrikar also caused a flutter in the BJP with his remark that the 2002 post-Godhra riots in Gujarat were a 'blot' on Modi's career.

Parrikar, who is known for his blunt talk and development initiatives, was first elected chief minister on October 24, 2000, the first IITian to head a state government.

His electoral debut was unsuccessful when he was defeated by Congress candidate Harish Zantye in the 1991 Lok Sabha election. He was first elected to the Goa assembly in 1994, and was the Leader of the Opposition from June to November 1999.

Parrikar's first tenure as chief minister lasted only till February 27, 2002. On June 5, 2002, he was re-elected chief minister.

On January 29, 2005, his government was reduced to a minority in the assembly after four BJP MLAs resigned from the House. Parrikar proved his majority in the House the next month.

In 2007, the Parrikar-led BJP was defeated in the Goa state election by the Congress led by Digambar Kamat, a former BJP leader.

A qualified chartered accountant, Shiv Sena leader Suresh Prabhu returns to the Union Cabinet after having served in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government where he won kudos for imparting a new dynamism to the power ministry.

That the 61-year-old banker-politician from coastal Konkan was in Narendra Modi's good books was evident when he was appointed head of the Advisory Group for Integrated Development of Power, Coal and Renewable Energy. Prabhu, left, was also appointed Modi's 'sherpa' to assist the prime minister at this month's G-20 summit in Brisbane.

Modi wanted Prabhu at the Centre despite the differences between the BJP and Shiv Sena ahead of last month's assembly election in Maharashtra.

Prabhu, who represented the Rajapur Lok Sabha constituency in the Konkan four times from 1996 to 2009, lost his seat in the 2009 general election.

He had called off his visit to the Wharton School to protest the cancellation of Modi's keynote address at the Wharton India Economic Forum 2013.

Prabhu served as industry minister, minister of environment and forests, minister of fertilisers and chemicals, power, heavy industry and public enterprises in Vajpayee's governments from 1998 to 2004.

He was also chairman of the task force for interlinking of rivers.

A trusted lieutenant of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah, Jagat Prakash Nadda's entry into the government is vindication of his efficiency.

The mild-mannered Nadda 53, was a strong contender for the post of BJP president.

Nadda, left, is seen as a member of the BJP's most powerful troika -- Modi and Shah being the others. He is known to be part of all major decision making processes in the party and is likely to be the bridge between the party and the government.

Born on December 2, 1960 in Patna, Nadda has emerged as a strong political figure in Himachal Pradesh in recent years where he moved after spending his youth in Bihar.

Secretary of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad at Patna University where his father was a vice-chancellor, he served the ABVP for nearly 13 years from 1977 to 1990.

After heading the BJP Yuva Morcha in 1991, he was appointed the BJP's national general secretary in May 2010.

Nadda was a member of the Himachal Pradesh assembly from 1993 to 1998, 1998 to 2003 and 2007 to 2012. In April 2012, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha.

The proverbial slip between the cup and lip had haunted Haryana Jat leader Birender Singh who lost the battle for the Haryana chief minister's office in 2004 to Bhupinder Singh Hooda. He was also denied a Cabinet berth in the Manmohan Singh government in 2010 at the last minute.

His induction as a Cabinet minister in the Modi government marks a rare happy turn in his long career where he was forced to live in the shadows of rival Jat leaders like Hooda and the Indian National Lok Dal's Om Parkash Chautala.

Birender Singh, left, took a big gamble before the Haryana assembly election by ending his over 40-year association with the Congress to join the BJP.

Grandson of the illustrious peasant leader Chhotu Ram, the 68-year-old politician has been a five-time MLA and served as a cabinet minister in Haryana three times.

As his differences with the Hooda government grew, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2010 and tipped to join the Manmohan Singh government, but last minute political machinations tripped him up.

Though the Congress tried to placate him by making him a permanent member of its highest decision-making body, the Congress Working Committee, he could never come to terms with the denial of a ministerial berth what he considered his due.

The BJP's rise in Haryana offered him an alternative and his stature as a Jat leader proved to be an asset for his new party. The BJP believes Singh's entry in the government will bring the Jats closer to it in a state where the Jats are the most numerous and influential community.