Jaitley set to be finance minister

Arun Jaitley is the only obvious candidate for finance minister on a list of cabinet members prepared by newly-sworn in Prime Minister Narendra Modi, two sources in the ruling party said. “Jaitley is almost certain to get finance,” said one of the sources. Jaitley, 61, is one of the top corporate lawyers in the country and has served in a previous BJP administration as commerce minister. An election strategist who has scripted many victories, Jaitley, however, lost the Lok Sabha polls from Amritsar to former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh. He is into his third term as a Rajya Sabha member.lAlmost a decade back after the BJP lost power in Uttar Pradesh under his stewardship, Rajnath Singh cut a lonely figure at his current Ashoka Road residence in the national capital.But the 62-year-old leader is now No2 in the Modi cabinet. He is likely to be the new home minister.Labelled as a ‘wily Thakur’ by many, Singh is known to have friends in all parties and it was for this reason that it was often rumoured during the poll campaign that in case the BJP fell short of majority, he could be front-runner for the post of prime minister. A firm believer in astrology, Singh, however, told his close circle of supporters that this was not possible and stars were by the side of Modi.lA top woman leader of the BJP and one of its best orators, Sushma Swaraj has blazed some records in her over three decade-old political career including being the youngest cabinet minister in Haryana and the first woman chief minister of Delhi.Swaraj, 62, who was appointed a minister yesterday, has enthusiastically performed tasks assigned to her by her party including contesting the election from Bellary in Karnataka against Congress president Sonia Gandhi.Appointed Leader of Opposition in the 15th Lok Sabha, Swaraj led from the front in attacking the Congress government on its perceived failures. She also shared camaraderie with the treasury benches, sometimes reciting poetry to lighten up the atmosphere in the house.lMuppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu is a Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka but has been made a cabinet minister from the Andhra Pradesh quota.Naidu, a good orator who served as president of the BJP between 2002 and 2004, is one of the most senior leaders of the BJP in Andhra Pradesh.Hailing from Nellore district in south coastal Andhra, the 64-year-old has become the cabinet minister for the second time. He was minister for rural development in the Atal Behari Vajpayee government.lA dozen years after he attacked then Gujarat chief minister Modi over the 2002 riots and quit the National Democratic Alliance, LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan yesterday joined the cabinet in a Modi-led central government.A Dalit leader, Paswan and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav were widely seen as potential Congress allies in the Lok Sabha election. But in February he surprised everyone by aligning with the BJP to contest Lok Sabha polls.Political activist Ashok Kumar Singh, who has known Paswan for four decades, said there was a time when Paswan was attracted to Maoism but he never embraced it.