Tribal MP Renuka Singh Takes Oath as Minister of State in Modi Cabinet

Raipur: A powerful tribal face of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who defied the Congress influence in the Sarguja region of Chhattisgarh was sworn in as a minister of state in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new cabinet.

The name of BJP vice-president Saroj Pandey, a Rajya Sabha member, was making rounds as one of the probables for a cabinet berth.

However, Pandey herself took to Twitter to congratulate Singh, the first woman MP of Sarguja, on her new assignment and also shared a picture of them on her Facebook page.

Singh, a former Cabinet minister in the Raman Singh government, is known to be an aggressive tribal woman politician of Chhattisgarh.

Her latest achievement was to turn the tide in the BJP’s favour in Sarguja during the Lok Sabha election. It was the same region where the BJP had lost 14 seats in the Assembly election in December, 2018.

Singh defeated senior Congress leader Khelsai Singh by over 1.5 lakh votes. She had lost to the Congress veteran in the 2013 Assembly election.

A two-time MLA, Renuka Singh was women and child development minister in the Raman Singh cabinet from 2003 to 2005. Later, she also served as the vice-chairperson of the Sarguja Development Authority.

The party did not field her in the 2018 election. It’s believed Singh was targeted by several factions within the state BJP.

The 58-year-old Renuka Singh is a native of Surajpur district and has studied till Class XII.

Starting her political career as the first woman president of Ramanujnagar mandal of the BJP in 2000, she became the Ramanujnagar Janpad member and served in the Samaj Kalyan Board from 2001 to 2003.