New Delhi
BJP Odisha’s tribal face and party veteran, 63-year-old Jual Oram has yet again been allocated the key portfolio of Tribal Affairs Ministry. Oram returns to the Ministry after a gap of five years having been replaced by Arjun Munda during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s second term.
He had held the post from 2014 to 2019 during Modi’s first term as Prime Minister. With Munda losing from Khunti in Jharkhand, Modi again fell back on the old timer, who has a Diploma in Electrical Engineering. Moreover, Oram hails from Odisha which has paid rich dividends to the BJP both in the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in 2024.
It was in his second term as an MP in 1999 that Oram was chosen to head the Tribal Affairs Ministry, which the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government had created following the bifurcation of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. Oram helmed the Ministry from 1999-2004 as the first Tribal Affairs Minister of India.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the sitting MP from Sundargarh defeated ace hockey player and Hockey India president Dilip Tirkey by 1.38 lakh votes. Oram had in 2014 too defeated the former Hockey India captain. With the BJP wresting power from the BJD in the State, Oram’s name also did the rounds for Chief Ministership.
Oram took to X to express his “heartfelt gratitude to the respected Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi ji ji for once again giving me the responsibility of serving my country by including me in the Union Council of Ministers for the third time.”
Born on March 22, 1961 in Kendudihi, Lahunipara in Sundargarh, Oram has two daughters and lists his profession as agriculturist, engineer, trade unionist and political worker. He has been a member of Standing Committee on Defence, BJP’s national vice president and Odisha BJP president. From 1990-1998, he was also a two-term MLA.
Born into a poor tribal family, Oram completed his engineering degree in 1982 and worked in Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited before entering politics.
Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Durgadas Uikey
Among the new faces in the Modi 3.0 Government is 58-year-old Durgadas Uikey, representing Betul (ST) seat for the second consecutive term.
Prior to his political innings, he worked as a teacher in schools of the Madhya Pradesh Tribal Welfare Department. He was given the Lok Sabha ticket for the first time in 2019. In the 2024 polls, he trounced Ramu Tekam of Congress by a margin of 3.79 lakh votes.
In 2019, he hogged limelight by taking oath as an MP in Sanskrit. He has been an RSS worker since 2000.
Uikey had a humble beginning and was even forced to work as a daily wager to make ends meet. He used to buy clothes for his sisters from the money earned as daily wages.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with 30 Cabinet Ministers, five Ministers of State with Independent charge and 36 Ministers of State was sworn in.
BOX
- The portfolios were allocated after Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired his first Cabinet meeting in his third term.
- The Cabinet cleared plans to build 3 crore houses for the rural and urban poor under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.
- Earlier in the morning, PM Modi signed his first file authorising the release of around ₹ 20,000 crore to about 9.3 crore farmers.
- Instead of two Ministers of State Renuka Singh and Biseshwar Tudu in Modi 2.0, Modi’s new team has only one MoS Tribal Affairs in Uikey now.
