Cabinet reshuffle: Shiv Pratap Shukla is a fresh face in PM Modi’s core team

Former Uttar Pradesh minister Shiv Pratap Shukla brings with him a rich organisational as well as ministerial experience to the Union Cabinet.

65-year-old Shukla hails from Gorakhpur – the citadel of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

The induction of Shukla, who is a Brahmin face of the party, is being seen as a well-calculated move of the ruling BJP to reap dividends in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections by keeping the upper caste in good humour.

Born in Khajni, Rudrapur in Uttar Pradesh, a village near Gorakhpur district to a middle-class family, Shukla completed his graduation in law from the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gorakhpur University.

His political life started in the early 1970s when he was the student leader of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), and in 1981, was elected as the Provincial Secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM).

He was jailed several times during his student days.

During Emergency, he was arrested under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) and was in prison for 19 months from 1975 to 1977.

The 65-year-old is known for his work as the Cabinet minister in Uttar Pradesh, where he initiated an ‘education for all’ scheme and for his efforts to reform conditions for prisoners and various rural …read more