Anurag Thakur takes charge as Union Information and Broadcasting Minister
Jul 08, 2021
New Delhi [India], July 8 : Union Minister Anurag Thakur on Thursday took charge as Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting.
"PM Modi has done terrific work in the last seven years to take India forward. The work done by people before me in Information and Broadcasting Ministry and responsibility given to me by the Prime Minister, I will try to meet those expectations", he said.
Thakur was on Wednesday sworn in as a Cabinet minister and has been given the charge of Information and Broadcasting Ministry as well as the portfolio of the Youth Affairs and Sports ministry.
The 46-year-old MP from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh was among the 15 new Cabinet ministers who took oath in the first major rejig and expansion of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government after it returned to power for a second term in May 2019.
The development comes just a fortnight before the Tokyo Olympics begins on July 23. Thakur as been made the Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports replacing Kiran Rijiju who has been elevated to Union Minister of Law and Justice.
Thakur was inducted into the Modi government in 2019 and was given the portfolios of the Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs.
The development also comes ahead of next year's Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh.
Thakur was first elected to Lok Sabha in May 2008 in a by-poll as a candidate of BJP. Thakur was also elected to 14th, 15th and 16th Lok Sabha.