Former Bihar CM Jitan Ram Manjhi Gets MSME Ministry; Shobha Karandlaje Joins As MoS
Jitan Ram Manjhi is replacing Narayan Rane who last held the position in July 2021 under Modi 2.0
Under the NDA government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the former chief minister of Bihar Jitan Ram Manjhi has been appointed as the new micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) minister. The 79-year-old leader of the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) was Bihar's CM for ten months between 2014 and 2015.
Born in Khijrasarai, Gaya, Manjhi won the Gaya seat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. After joining the NDA alliance led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), after meeting with Home Minister Amit Shah early this year in February, he fought against Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Kumar Sarvjeet and won by 1,01,812 votes.
He was previously an MLA from the Congress party in 1980 and 1985, shifting to the Janata Dal later and then the RJD. In 2015, as part of the Nitish Kumar government, he became the minister. Manjhi is replacing Narayan Rane who last held the position since July 2021 under Modi 2.0.
As for the Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shobha Karandlaje has been appointed as the new Minister of State (Mos) in both the Ministry of MSME and the Ministry of Labour and Employment.
During the second term of the Modi government, Bhanu Pratap Verma was the MoS in the MSME Ministry working with Rane in July 2021. In the 17th Lok Sabha, Karandlaje was a member of the Standing Committee on Energy, the Committee on Empowerment of Women and the Consultative Committee under the Ministry of Women and Child Development
