Amethi’s winner Smriti Irani gets two key portfolios in Modi Cabinet

The firebrand actor-turned-politician Smriti Irani has been given the charge as Minister of Women and Child Development; and Minister of Textiles in Modi Cabinet - a reward for her historic victory over Congress President Rahul Gandhi in Amethi.

She held portfolios of HRD, Textiles and Information & Broadcasting Minister during the tenure of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government's maiden tenure from 2014-2019. She had first contested a Lok Sabha election from Chandni Chowk in Delhi in 2004, but lost to Congress heavyweight Kapil Sibal.

After losing to Rahul Gandhi in 2014, she continued to cultivate Amethi in the past five years and this helped her reap electoral dividends -- she emerged a giant-killer of 2019 by defeating the Congress president Rahul Gandhi in his home turf.

Though the 43-year-old popular television actor-turned-politician lost in 2014, she had succeeded in bringing down the victory margin of Gandhi to only 1.07 lakh from 3.7 lakh in the previous election. The voters rewarded Irani for her sustained efforts in 2019. She was elected to Rajya Sabha in 2011 and re-elected in 2017 for a second term.



Irani became the youngest cabinet minister in 2014 after the BJP won a massive victory in the Lok Sabha polls and was assigned the high-profile Human Resource Development (HRD) portfolio. However, she was shifted out of the HRD Ministry to Textiles after a two-year tenure replete with controversies.

An eloquent speaker, she was often the BJP's first choice for addressing the party's press conferences and defending it during debates in Parliament.

(With inputs from Agencies)