Anurag Singh Thakur and Hardeep Singh Puri on Wednesday took oath as the Union Cabinet Minister during PM Modi’s cabinet reshuffle.

Thakur was elevated in the reshuffle and expansion of the council of ministers carried out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday. He took oath at a function in Rashtrapati Bhavan. Thakur became Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs in 2019, when the BJP led by PM Modi was elected for a second term in office.

Thakur was first elected to Lok Sabha in May 2008 in a by-poll as a candidate of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Thakur was also elected to 14th, 15th and 16th Lok Sabha.

Thakur was the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) from May 2016 to February 2017. In 2016, he became the first serving BJP Member of Parliament to become a regular commissioned officer in the Territorial Army.

Thakur was the youngest president of the Himachal Pradesh State Cricket Association at the age of 25.

Another big name who was elevated to the Cabinet rank is Hardeep Singh Puri is among the 43 leaders to be made part of the new Narendra Modi cabinet. 

Puri, who joined the BJP in January 2014, became Union minister for civil aviation and housing and urban affairs in the second term of the Narendra Modi government.

A 1974 batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, Puri served as a joint secretary in the ministry of external affairs from 1994 to 1997, and then from 1999 to 2002. He was also a joint secretary in the ministry of defence from 1997 to 1999. Subsequently, he became secretary (economic relations) in the ministry of external affairs from 2009 to 2013.

The Modi 2.0 Cabinet saw the induction of Jyotiraditya Scindia, Anupriya Patel and Ajay Bhatt as Union ministers. The Cabinet reshuffle also witnessed the induction of 13 lawyers, 6 doctors, 7 former civil servants and 5 engineers into the Council.