Mansukh Mandaviya, who served as the union health minister at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, was appointed on Monday as India’s new sports minister, replacing Anurag Thakur in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet. Mandaviya, 52, won the Porbandar Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat by defeating his nearest Congress rival Lalit Vasoya by a margin of 3.83 lakh votes. Simultaneously, Mandaviya was also given charge of the ministry of chemicals and fertilizers in the new cabinet unveiled on Monday. Also, Raksha Khadse, three-time BJP MP from Maharashtra’s Raver, was appointed Minister of State (Sports) under Mandaviya.
Raksha, 37, is the daughter-in-law of Eknath Khadse, an NCP leader from the Sharad Pawar faction who decided to rejoin the BJP.
She won the 2024 Lok Sabha election by nearly 3 lakh votes, defeating her nearest rival Shriram Patil of the NCP-Sharad Pawar faction.
Her husband, Nikhil Khadse, died in 2013.
Mandaviya was entrusted with the health portfolio in mid-2021 when the country was battling the COVID-19 crisis. At that time, he replaced Dr. Harsh Vardhan, who was removed from the Council of Ministers as part of a reshuffle.
Mandaviya’s ministry was then tasked with increasing the supply of oxygen and medicines and overseeing the vaccination program during the serious second wave of COVID-19. In the newly sworn-in government, the health ministry was handed over to JP Nadda.
The recently concluded polls were Mandaviya’s first Lok Sabha elections. He was born in Bhavnagar on June 1, 1972.
Before being nominated as a member of the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat, he won as MLA from Palitana assembly seat in Bhavnagar district in 2002.
The outgoing Thakur was among the 37 ministers withdrawn from Modi’s third consecutive government. Thakur has held the position since July 7, 2021, serving as Sports Minister for almost three years.
India achieved its best performance at the Olympics during his tenure, winning a record seven medals at the Tokyo Games just weeks after taking over the ministry from Kiren Rijiju following a reshuffle.
He was also at the helm of affairs when the government decided to make medal winners in all Khelo India competitions eligible for government jobs after a review in the criteria.
When this was announced in March, Thakur said the move was in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “vision of a robust sports ecosystem, nurturing grassroots talent and transforming sports into a profitable and viable career option.” During Thakur’s tenure as sports minister, India also began making proposals to launch an ambitious bid to host the 2036 Olympic Games for the first time.
Optimistic about India securing hosting rights, Thakur has always maintained that a part of the credit for improving the country’s sporting performance goes to the government’s flagship initiative Khelo India, which was launched in 2017 and receives the lion’s share of budgetary allocation.
Thakur, who started his political career in 2008 and represented the Hamirpur constituency in Himachal Pradesh five times, also considered that the country will be among the five most medal-winning nations in the world sooner or later.
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