Yashwant Sinha (65), External Affairs Minister: Resigned from the IAS in 1984 and joined the Janata Dal. Elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1988 but did not accept the post of a Minister of State in the VP Singh government. Chandrashekhar made him Finance Minister after taking over in November, 1990. His Lok Sabha constituency is Hazaribagh. Has been Finance Minister thrice. Jaswant Singh (64), Finance Minister: One of the Big Five who call the shots. From Jasol in Barmer in Rajasthan, he was commissioned into the Central India Horse in 1957. Resigned his Army commission to join politics. Known more for his stint as External Affairs Minister, he has now been entrusted a charge which Vajpayee wanted him to take up earlier. He had been named Finance Minister even in 1996 but the government fell in 13 days. He is Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha. Jana Krishnamurthy (72), Law Minister: Has had a changing job profile. A law graduate from Chennai, he joined the RSS in 1940. Was a pracharak for over a decade in Madurai. Joined the Bharatiya Jana Sangh in 1965 and was Tamil Nadu party secretary. One of the founder secretaries of the BJP when it was born in 1980, he became a party general secretary in 1983 and vice-president two years later. L K Advani called him to Delhi in 1993. Rose to become its president. He is a Rajya Sabha member. Sahib Singh Verma (59), Labour Minister: Born in Delhi’s Mundka village, he was a grassroots RSS worker. Took to active politics only in 1977 when he was elected a municipal councillor. In 1993, he was elected to the Delhi Assembly from Shalimar Bagh. A minister in Madan Lal Khurana’s government, he took charge of Delhi when Khurana quit over the Hawala scandal. Verma was made to vacate the chair for Sushma Swaraj in 1998. Was promised a Cabinet berth then. Balasaheb Vikhe Patil (70), Heavy Industries Minister: Serving his seventh term in the House, Vikhe Patil started off as a Congressman. He joined the Shiv Sena after his defeat in the 1991 polls. His home constituency is Kopargaon in Maharashtra. Has a keen interest in agriculture and the cooperative sector. Shatrughan Sinha (55), Health Minister: This popular film star threw his lot with the BJP when it was in Opposition. Has been one of its main crowd pullers in poll campaigns. Always nursed a sense of injury over not being considered for a Cabinet berth earlier. From Patna in Bihar, he is a member of the Rajya Sabha. N T Shanmugam (55), MoS (independent charge), Food Processing Industries: A second time member, he is a leader of the backward classes in Tamil Nadu. Vice-president of Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), he took active part in the 1987 agitation for job reservation. A law graduate from Chennai, Shanmugam provide free legal aid to those arrested in the agitation. Sanjay Paswan (40), MoS Communications and IT: A first time member, he is a law graduate who teaches in Patna University. He has been general secretary of the Bihar BJP unit. He has also authored a book on the Scheduled Castes in Bihar and another on unorganised labour in Patna district. He was elected from the Nawada reserved constituency in 1999. Anant Geete (51), MoS Finance: A third time member, Geete was a Shiv Sena councillor in the Bombay Municipal Corporation for 17 years before moving to Parliament. As a corporator, worked for improvement of civic facilities in Mumbai. He represents the Ratnagiri Lok Sabha constituency. Nikhil Kumar Choudhary (56), Mos Agro and Rural Industries: Made it to the Lok Sabha in his third attempt at the hustings. From Katihar in Bihar, he is an agriculturist. Vinod Khanna (55), MoS Tourism and Culture: From Bollywood to Rajneesh to Parliament, it has been a long journey for film star Vinod Khanna. He has been elected twice from Gurdaspur. In fact, he was the only BJP candidate to win from Punjab in the 1999 polls. Sons Akshaye and Rahul are in films. Shripad Yesso Naik (49), MoS Civil Aviation: A first time member, he began his public life as a village sarpanch. He was president of the BJP in Goa from 1990 to 1995. From Panaji, he is a businessman by profession. Basangouda Patil (39), MoS Textiles: From Bijapur in Karnataka, Patil is a first timer but has had legislative experience in the Karnataka assembly. President of the BJP in Bijapur, he was given the party ticket to contest the 1999 polls. A commerce graduate, he is an agriculturist. A K Moorthy (38): MoS Railways: A PMK worker, Moorthy is a first timer from Chengalpattu in Tamil Nadu. A businessman by profession, he has made it to the Union Council because the PMK is back in the NDA fold. S Thirunavukkarasu (53): MoS Shipping: A former deputy speaker of the Tamil Nadu Assembly, he is a first timer. Once a staunch supporter of Jayalalithaa, he fell from grace and floated his own party MADMK. An advocate by profession, he represents Pudukottai (TN) in the Lok Sabha.
