Jayant Chaudhary and Sukanta Majumdar appointed new MoS

The President’s Secretariat announced on Monday that Dharmendra Pradhan will continue as the Education Minister in the new Narendra Modi government, while Jayant Chaudhary and Sukanta Majumdar will serve as Ministers of State for Education. Additionally, Chaudhary will also hold the position of MoS (Independent Charge) for the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, while Majumdar will hold the same rank in the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region.

Pradhan, re-elected for his third term, returns to the Lok Sabha after 15 years, winning from Sambalpur in Odisha. He previously served as the Minister of Education and Skill Development, overseeing the implementation of the National Education Policy.

Jayant Chaudhary, the 45-year-old national chairman of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), is the grandson of India’s fifth Prime Minister, Chaudhary Charan Singh. He joined the NDA ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections after the BJP posthumously honored his grandfather with the Bharat Ratna. Under his leadership, RLD secured two seats in western Uttar Pradesh and contested in alliance with the Samajwadi Party in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, winning a total of nine seats.

Sukanta Majumdar, the West Bengal BJP president, retained the Balurghat Lok Sabha seat for a second term. Before joining politics, he served as a professor of Botany at the University of Gour Banga. Majumdar has been associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) since his youth and was appointed as the state unit president of the BJP in September 2021.

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