New Delhi: Kiren Rijiju has been elevated to the cabinet minister rank and given the charge of the Ministry of Law and Justice. He had been serving as the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Youth Affairs and Minister of State for Minority Affairs and Ayush portfolios.
Mr Rijiju represents the Arunachal Pradesh West constituency in Lok Sabha and holds a law degree from Delhi University.
He succeeds Ravi Shankar Prasad as Law and Justice Minister. Mr Prasad has not got a cabinet portfolio in this reshuffle.
Soon after the swearing-in ceremony, Mr Rijiju took to Twitter to thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi for giving him a new responsibility. He added that he will work in a dedicated manner to realise the Prime Minister's vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat.
Mr Rijiju was first elected to Lok Sabha after the 2004 general election. He lost the election in 2009 and was reelected in 2014 and 2019.
Mr Rijiju is among six Union Ministers who have been promoted to the cabinet in today's mega reshuffle. The others are Hardeep Singh Puri, Parshottam Rupala, G Kishan Reddy, Mansukh Mandaviya and Anurag Thakur.
Thirty-six new ministers have joined the Narendra Modi government in today's reshuffle. The cabinet now has 77 ministers.
Among the incumbent ministers who did not find a place in the revamped cabinet are Ravi Shankar Prasad, who held the Law and Justice and IT portfolios; Prakash Javadekar, who was in charge of the Ministries of Information and Broadcasting, Environment, Forest and Climate Change and Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, and Harsh Vardhan, who held the health portfolio.