Koderma MP Annapurna Devi joins Modi cabinet as MoS

BJP parliamentarian from Koderma Annapurna Devi on Wednesday became the second Lok Sabha member from Jharkhand to have found a place in the reshuffled Narendra Modi cabinet

BJP parliamentarian from Koderma Annapurna Devi on Wednesday became the second Lok Sabha member from Jharkhand to have found a place in the reshuffled Narendra Modi cabinet.

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She was administered oath as the Minister of State in the Union government by the President of India as part of the first expansion of the Cabinet led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is in his second stint at the helm.

Devi is the second Lok Sabha member from the state to have joined the Union cabinet after tribal affairs minister Arjun Munda. Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi is also a member of Rajya Sabha from Jharkhand.

Appointment of Devi, who belongs to the OBC (other backward classes) category , in the Union cabinet from the state is significant, as she is a first time Member of Parliament and also a new entrant into the BJP. Devi, the then Jharkhand president of Lalu Prasad-led Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), joined the BJP just ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

An RJD veteran who represented Koderma assembly seat in four occasions, Devi was also a minister in the Hemant Soren government in 2013. Soon after she joined the BJP, she was made vice-president of Jharkhand BJP unit before being elevated as the party’s national vice-president.