New Delhi, At 36, Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu is the youngest minister while 79-year-old Jitan Ram Manjhi is the oldest minister to be inducted in the 18th Lok Sabha. Naidu, Srikakulam MP from Telugu Desam Party (TDP), was sworn in as a minister of state (MoS) in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new Council of Ministers. Another young minister is Raksha Khadse (37), an MP from Maharashtra. She won the Raver Lok Sabha seat in Maharashtra. Manjhi was sworn in as a Union Cabinet Minister in Modi 3.0 government. He has served as the 23rd chief minister of Bihar, and is the founding president of Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM).
Previously, Manjhi had served as the minister for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes welfare in Nitish Kumar’s Cabinet. He won the Gaya seat in 2024 general elections.
Some of the other young ministers include Chirag Paswan and Jayant Choudhary. PM Modi, along with his 71 ministers, took oath on Sunday as the new coalition government was formed after two full tenures in which the BJP enjoyed a majority on its own.