Mansukh Mandaviya appointed new sports minister
Mansukh Mandaviya, who served as the union health minister at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, was on Monday appointed as India's new sports minister, replacing Anurag Thakur in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet. The 52-year-old Mandaviya won the Porbandar Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat by defeating his nearest Congress rival Lalit Vasoya by a margin of 3.83 lakh votes.
Modi 3.0 Live
Modi 3.0 is here! Familiar faces, fresh additions, and the big portfolio puzzle
Modi-fying growth: India plans policy twist for jobs & investment
No place for losers: Modi sends a clear message with Cabinet 3.0
Aside for the ministry youth affairs and sports, Mandaviya was also given charge of the ministry of chemicals and fertilisers in new cabinet unveiled on Monday.
Mandaviya was entrusted with the health portfolio in the middle of 2021 when the country was battling the COVID-19 crisis. At that time, he had replaced Dr Harsh Vardhan, who was dropped from the Council of Ministers as part of a reshuffle.
Mandaviya's ministry was then tasked with ramping up the supply of oxygen and medicines and overseeing the vaccination programme during the severe second wave of COVID-19. In the newly sworn in government, the health ministry has been given to J P Nadda.
The just-concluded polls were Mandaviya's first Lok Sabha election. He was born in Bhavnagar on June 1, 1972.
Before being nominated as a Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat, he had won as an MLA from Palitana assembly seat of Bhavnagar district in 2002.
The outgoing Thakur
