R.S. Katheria - a professor becomes minister of state

BJP MP from Agra constituency in Uttar Pradesh, Ram Shankar Katheria was Sunday inducted in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government in the first ministry expansion.

Katheria was appointed the party general secretary of Punjab. He is a professor of Hindi at the K.M. Institute of Dr B.R. Ambedkar University in Agra.

He was born in Etawah district in 1964 and did his M.A. and Ph.D. from the Kanpur University.

He won from Agra constituency in 2009 securing 2,03,697 votes. In May 2014, he secured 5,83,716 votes, defeating a Bahujan Samaj Party candidate.

His links with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) are fairly old and firm, the professor having been its member long before being selected to represent Agra constituency in the 2009 Lok Sabha election.

Katheria is an excellent orator and has written "Etawah Zile ki Boliyan", "Dalit Chetna ki Avashyakta", "Dalit Sahitya aur Nai Chunautiyan".

Purushottam Khandelwal, president of the Braj Prant of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said: "He will definitely implement Modi's plans."

Vishwa Hindu Parishad member Premendra Jain said: "His (Katheria's) hard work has been rewarded while working for the RSS. Katheria is familiar with all the problems of Agra city and we expect him to take up the long pending demands (of the city) for execution."