At Ground Zero of farmer, Opp protests, Krishi Bhawan gets ‘image makeover’ with new faces

Krishi Bhawan housing five Union ministries, which witnessed several protests by farmers as well as the Opposition parties during the last five years, bears a new look in the aftermath of the just-concluded Lok Sabha elections.

None of a dozen ministers who used to sit here during the Narendra Modi government 2.0, has returned to the building this time. This development is being seen as an “image makeover” by the Modi-led NDA government 3.0, given the perceived disenchantment among farming and other rural communities, which was reflected by the BJP’s poor performance in many rural constituencies across the country.

The five ministries based in Krishi Bhawan, located at Dr Rajendra Prasad Road in Lutyens’ Delhi, include Rural Development; Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution; Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare; Panchayati Raj; and Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying. The 12 ministers who used to sit here during the previous Modi government were Agriculture Minister Arjun Munda and his two deputies — Sobha Karandlaje and Kailash Choudhary; Food Minister Piyush Goyal and his two deputies — Ashwini Kumar Choubey and Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti; Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Giriraj Singh and his two deputies — Faggan Singh Kulaste and Kapil Moreshwar Patil; and Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Minister Parshottam Rupala and his two junior ministers — Dr Sanjeev Kumar Balyan and Dr L Murugan. None of them have returned to Krishi Bhawan in the new BJP-led NDA government.

While half of these 12 ministers tasted defeat in the Lok Sabha elections, only five of them won, while the remaining one did not contest.

Among those who won, only Piyush Goyal, Giriraj Singh and Shobha Karandlaje have got a berth