Prime Minister Narendra Modi undertook an expansion of his council of ministers and reshuffled portfolios while bringing in 21 new faces. Among them, Manohar Parrikar got Defence Ministry, Suresh Prabhu will head the Railway Ministry, J P Nadda has been given Health and Rajiv Pratap Rudy has been made MoS (Independent charge) for Skill development.

Here is what these new recruits bring to the table:

Manohar Parrikar
From being the first IITian to become a CM, technocrat-turned-politician Manohar Gopalkrishna Parrikar has come a long way. The 59-year-old RSS pracharak, set to get the defence portfolio, will preside over the Modi government’s policy of indigensing defence production, a key component of the Make in India campaign.
As three-time Goa CM, Parrikar has earned the reputation of being a corruption-free administrator and a hard taskmaster. He had led a campaign against the Congress-led government on illegal mining in the state. His decision to reduce petrol prices by around R11 per litre and social schemes like ‘Ladli Lakshmi’ and ‘Grih Adhar’ made him hugely popular in the state. Parrikar has Modi’s trust as he had publicly backed the PM in the 2014 polls, but he is also known for his blunt talk — he once said the post-Godhra riots were a blot on Modi’s career even though he was not a part of it.

Suresh Prabhu
The Shiv Sena high command is certainly not pleased as Prabhu had long fallen out of favour with it. Notably, Sena MP Anil Desai failed to take oath amid talk that Uddhav Thackeray will pull out of the government in New Delhi and play Opposition in Maharashtra.
During Vajpayee’s reign, Prabhu held portfolios such as industry, environment and forests, fertilizers & chemicals, power, heavy industry and public enterprises. He was also chairman of Task Force for Interlinking of Rivers. As power minister, he took steps towards affordable power and introduced transparency in project bidding, among other things. He also spearheaded a project on improving efficiency of old power stations and lowering transmission losses. A qualified CA and banker-politician, Prabhu, 61, is in the good books of Modi. Despite the problems between BJP and the Sena, he was appointed as Modi’s ‘sherpa’ for the forthcoming G20 summit.

JP Nadda
One of the three prominent figures involved in BJP’s decision-making , Nadda enjoys the confidence of both Modi and party president Amit Shah. Born in Bihar, the 53-year-old Nadda has emerged as a strong figure from Himachal Pradesh, where he was member of the legislative assembly before entering the Rajya Sabha. An efficient lieutenant to Modi, Nanda is likely to be a bridge between the party and the government.
Nadda joined student politics inspired by the JP Movement. He was an active member of BJP’s student wing, the ABVP, where he won polls to become the Patna University secretary in 1977. Nadda served ABVP for nearly 13 years, holsing many key positions.
Though mild-mannered, Nanda is known as a hard taskmaster. He was a strong contender for the post of BJP president, but he extended full support to Shah after losing the race earlier this year.
Nadda has also served as health minister in Himachal Pradesh government.

Rajiv Pratap Rudy
A post-graduate in economics and a commercial pilot, Rudy worked his way up in politics with a decade of field work in rural Bihar to become the youngest member of the legislative assembly in 1990.
A member of the previous NDA government, he initially held the commerce and industry portfolio as a minister of state and, then, the civil aviation portfolio as a minister of state with independent charge. The 52-year-old tech-savvy politician also worked as an economics lecturer in Bihar.
In the early part of his political career, Rudy was president of the Chandigarh government college students union. During his work in Bihar, he was closely associated with the BJP’s youth wing as national vice-president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha.
Rudy has served in various political and Parliamentary panels, including the Committee on Patents (Second Amendment) Bill in 1999. During leisure, he engages in adventure sport and travel.