Meet the members who come from a humblest background in Modi's team

The number of ministers facing criminal cases has increased from 31% in 2014 to 39% in 2019. The new Modi council of ministers, however, is fractionally poorer

In the selection of its ministers and portfolio distribution, Narendra Modi government 2.0 has tried to shape a narrative of entrusting with ministerial responsibilities some of its Lok Sabha members who hail from humble backgrounds or exhibit a sense of rootedness to their immediate society.

Odisha’s Pratap Chandra Sarangi, Assam’s Rameswar Teli, Rajasthan’s Kailash Choudhary and West Bengal’s Debasree Chaudhuri, all ministers of state in the new government, are some of the examples of this.

Sarangi, 64, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Lok Sabha member from Odisha’s Balasore and former Bajrang Dal coordinator of the state, received some of the loudest cheers