new delhi 17 new faces including bjp leaders s s ahluwalia and m j akbar and allies anupriya patel of apna dal and ramdas athawale of rpi were today inducted along with two old hands vijay goel and faggan kulaste into the modi government in expansion and reshuffle in which five were dropped and environment minister prakash javedekar was elevated to the cabinetthe second exercise by prime minister narendra modi in little more than two years since he took over in may 2014 saw a number a dalit and obc leaders being given ministerial positions done apparently with an eye on assembly elections in uttar pradesh and uttarakhand next year and gujarat laterfollowing is the profile of lesser known ministers arjun ram meghwal a bureaucratturnedpolitician arjun ram meghwal the chief whip of bjp in lok sabha is known for his penchant for pedalling to parliamentmeghwal was born into family of weavers in kishmidesar village of bikaner district he began his career as a telephone operator while pursuing his llb and got into the rajasthan civil services after two failed attemptshe was later promoted to the indian administrative service iasa twotime mp the 61yearold was first elected to the lok sabha in 2009 from bikaner constituency which was earlier represented by bollywood star dharmendraknown for his active participation in lok sabha debates on a variety of issues meghwal had recently attacked the judiciary for its extra constitutional activism the dalit leader had demanded that running commentary by judges should endeasily identified by his green and saffron turban meghwal has of late started using a bicycle to commute to parliament during sessions this he says saves fuel protects environment and keeps him fit he often sings bhajans in the morning which he says keep him mentally alertas an mp he has been a member of various parliamentary committees including on defence science and technology environment and forest personnel public grievances and law and justicemeghwal has participated in many programmes for development of rajasthani language and its inclusion in 8th schedule of the constitutionp p chaudharyfrom ploughing the fields to being an advocate and a lawmaker p p chaudhary who cut his teeth in the rss has been catapulted to the centrestage of politics with his induction in the union council of ministersborn in a poor farmer family 62yearold chaudhary joined the rss when he was eight years old as a bal swayamsevak in 1961 hailing from bhavi in jodhpur district of rajasthan chaudhary worked hard to study law and went on to become a senior advocate of the supreme courthe was given a ticket by the bjp from pali in rajasthan and won the seat in 2014 lok sabha pollsspecialising in constitutional matters he claims to have argued nearly 11000 cases in his long professional career of almost four decades he was also standing counsel of the central government in 1990he has also handled cases relating to farmers and those relating to land acquisition as well as public interest litigations he also