New Delhi, May 31: Smriti Irani, "the Amethi giant slayer", has been allotted the Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) in addition to the Textile portfolio she held in the outgoing government. The announcement was made on Friday, when the Narendra Modi regime allocated portfolios to all the 58 Ministers sworn-in yesterday.

Irani, 48, takes over the WCD department from BJP veteran Maneka Gandhi, who has not been included in the Modi regime 2.0. The latter, an eight-time lawmaker, has been appointed as pro-tem speaker and speculations are rife that she would preside over as Speaker of the 17th Lok Sabha. Narendra Modi Cabinet 2.0 Ministers And Portfolios: Amit Shah Gets Home, Rajnath Singh Defence

 

Ever since the results of Lok Sabha elections 2019 were announced, political pundits were contemplating on the role of Irani in the next BJP-led NDA government.

In an unprecedented achievement, Irani ended up defeating Congress president Rahul Gandhi from his family bastion of Uttar Pradesh's Amethi. The constituency, based in Awadh region, has been the home-turf of the family with no member of the Nehru-Gandhi clan losing the seat in the last 39 years.

Between 2014 to 2019, in the erstwhile Modi government, Irani held the portfolios of Human Resources Development, followed by Information and Broadcasting and Textile.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 31, 2019 02:15 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).