New Delhi: Five former Chief Ministers of different states were sworn in as Union Ministers in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Union Cabinet on Sunday. The five former CMs who made their way into Modi's 3.O cabinet includes JD (Secular) leader HD Kumaraswamy, four-time Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Hindustan Aawam Morcha (HAM) leader and former CM of Bihar, Jitan Ram Manjhi, two-time Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and former chief minister of Assam Sarbananda Sonowal.
Chouhan became the Union cabinet minister for the first time in his more than three-decade-long political career. He was the CM of Madhya Pradesh from 2020 to 2023 and previously from 2005 to 2018. He is the longest-serving Chief Minister of the state. Kumaraswamy was one of the two JD(S) candidates who won the Lok Sabha elections. Kumaraswamy won the Mandya constituency.
HD Kumaraswamy is also a two-time Chief Minister of Karnataka. He served as the Karnataka CM from 2006-7 and then from 2018-19. He is currently serving as the president of JD(S). The Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) leader Manjhi was Bihar's chief minister between 2014-2015. The Dalit leader was the first chief minister from the state's Musahar community. An MLA since 1980, Manjhi was elected the Lok Sabha MP from Bihar's Gaya.
Manohar Lal Khattar won from Karnal defeating Congress' Divyanshu Budhiraja by a margin of 232577 votes. Khattar was the Chief Minister till March this year, when the Bharatiya Janata Party suddenly chose to drop him from the post and field him for the Lok Sabha. He was replaced by Nayab Singh Saini as the Chief Minister.
Khattar, a former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh pracharak has served as the Chief Minister for two terms from October 2014 and has been representing Karnal Legislative Assembly since 2014. Former Chief Minister of Assam Sarbananda Sonowal was also the minister in the previous NDA goverment. BJP-led National Democratic Alliance has won its third successive term in Lok Sabha polls. The NDA won 293 seats in the Lok Sabha polls with BJP getting 240 seats.
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