The recent Union Cabinet expansion has pushed the total number of women ministers to 11, the highest since 2004. As many as 15 new cabinet ministers and 28 ministers of state were sworn in, taking the strength of the council of ministers to 78. This included 7 women MPs from the BJP and its allies who were inducted into the council of ministers. The seven women who took oath as ministers of state were Shobha Karandlaje, Darshana Vikram Jardosh, Meenakshi Lekhi, Annapurna Devi, Pratima Bhoumik, Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar and Apna Dal's Anupriya Singh Patel. Before this expansion, Modi Cabinet already had four female ministers- Smriti Irani, Nirmala Sitharaman, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti and Renuka Singh Saruta. Let's take a look at all 11 female ministers of the Narendra Modi government:
1. Anupriya Singh Patel Union Minister of State (MoS) for Health under PM Narendra Modi’s first term, Patel has been appointed MoS in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry this time around. Holding a Lok Sabha seat from Mirzapur, the 40-year-old MP has also served as an MLA in Uttar Pradesh. She has done MBA from Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University, Kanpur.
2. Sushri Shobha Karandlaje Sushri Shobha Karandlaje is also serving her second term parliaments and she has been appointed as MoS in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare. She is a Loksabha MP from Karnataka's Udupi-Chikmagalur. Before joining the Union government, she held multiple portfolios in the Karnataka government, such as Power, Rural Development, and Food and Civil Supplies. She has done MA from Mangalore University.
3. Darshana Vikram Jardosh Darshana Vikram Jardosh has been appointed as MoS in the Ministry of Textiles and Ministry of Railways. She is a Member of Parliament from Surat in Gujarat and is serving her third term. Before winning Lok Sabha elections, Jardosh was a Corporator of the Surat Municipal Corporation and a member of the Gujarat Social Welfare Board. The Lok Sabha MP from Surat has done BCom.
4. Meenakshi Lekhi Meenakshi Lekhi is a well-known lawyer and an MP from Delhi. She is serving her second term in Parliament, and this time around has been given the responsibility as MoS in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the Ministry of Culture. She has also been a member of the New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC). She has done LLB from Delhi University.
5. Annapurna Devi Annapurna Devi has been appointed as MoS in the Ministry of Education during her first tenure as an MP. She won the seat from Koderma in Jharkhand. She has a varied portfolio under her belt with ministries such as the Committee on Empowerment of Women and Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Power and Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. She has done MA from Ranchi University.
6. Pratima Bhoumik Pratima Bhoumik is a BJP Lok Sabha MP from Tripura West and has been given the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment as a Minister of State (MoS). She is also the first-ever Tripura resident to make it to the Union cabinet in the history of the country. She has a degree in BioScience from Tripura University.
7. Dr Bharati Pawar Dr Bharati Pawar is also a first time MP from Maharashtra's Dindori and has been given the responsibility for MoS under the Central government's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. She has also served as a member of the Nashik Zila Parishad. She has an MBBS degree.
8. Smriti Irani Smriti Irani emerged as a giant killer when she defeated Rahul Gandhi from Amethi in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. She was recently given the responsibility of handling the Ministry of Women and Child Development. Before joining politics, Irani was a model, television actress, and producer.
9. Nirmala Sitharaman Nirmala Sitharaman is the Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs of India. She is a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament, since 2014. Before heading the Ministry of Finance, she was in charge of the Ministry of Defence.
10. Niranjan Jyoti Niranjan Jyoti is an MP from the Fatehpur constituency who was appointed as the MoS in the Ministry of Rural Development in the Narendra Modi 2019 Cabinet. Before holding the Rural development office, she was in charge of the MoS for Food Processing Industries in November 2014.
11. Renuka Singh Renuka Singh is an MP from Chhattisgarh for the BJP. She is the current Minister of State of Ministry of Tribal Affairs in the Second Modi ministry. Renuka was first elected to Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly in 2003 and became Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Woman & Child Development and Family welfare.
