In Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new cabinet, Mansukh Mandaviya was named on Monday, June 10 as the Union Sports Minister, taking Anurag Thakur’s place. One day after Narendra Modi and seventy-one ministers of the coalition NDA government took the oath of office in New Delhi, President of India Draupadi Murmu directed the allocation of portfolios of the Union Council of Ministers on the Prime Minister’s advice.
The 52-year-old Mansukh Mandaviya will become the head of the Sports Ministry a few months before the July 26 start of the Paris Olympics. Anurag Thakur was in charge of the preparations for the quadrennial international event, which India hopes would result in a historic medal total.
Mansukh Mandaviya is the seventh Union Sports Minister after Sarbananda Sonowal, Jitendra Singh, Vijay Goel, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Kiren Rijiju and Anurag Thakur since the first Modi-led government in 2014.
