Piyush Goyal’s Election Win in Mumbai North Constituency
With the oath ceremony of PM Narendra Modi, other cabinet members of Modi Cabinet 2024 were sworn in on Sunday, 9 June 2024. Piyush Goyal is one of the selectively reinducted ministers of Narendra Modi’s Cabinet. He handled key ministries in the 2nd Modi government and secured his debut Lok Sabha poll from the Mumbai North Constituency. He won the election with a great margin and impressive vote numbers which showcase the trust of Mumbaikars towards the former Union Minister. Goyal, 59, has been a member of the Rajya Sabha since 2010. During debates on a range of topics in the Upper House of Parliament, he skilfully expressed the government’s stance on several occasions.
He was sworn into the new Union Council of Ministers of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday at a grand ceremony conducted at the presidential palace in Delhi. Goyal won the election against Bhushan Patil, the Vice President of Mumbai Congress. Goyal won the election by a margin of around 3,57,608 votes in the 2024 parliamentary elections. The 59 year old Minister initially held the Ministry of Railways and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry portfolios in the 2019 Union Cabinet. Soon after, Goyal was divested and took care of the additional responsibility of the Food and Public distribution portfolio.
In addition to serving as Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs twice in 2018 and 2019, he also served as Minister of Railways and Coal from 2017 to 2019. From 2014 to 2017, he served as the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Mines, Power, Coal, and New and Renewable Energy. From 2016 to 2017. As we mentioned above, Goyal was the Member of the Upper House of the Parliament of India (Rajya Sabha), and the Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha in the 2nd term of prime ministership of Modi.
While handling the position as a railway minister, Goyal oversaw the launch of the first Indigenous semi-high-speed train, the Vande Bharata Express between Delhi and Varanasi. In a 3-decade career span, he has held numerous important positions at different levels in BJP. He fulfilled the duty as the National Treasurer of the Party. He served as a member of the Manifesto and Publicity Committees during the 2019 Indian general elections. In the 2014 Indian General Elections, he oversaw the BJP’s Information and Communication Campaign Committee as well.
Besides, before the elections, Goyal strongly condemned the remarks of opposition leaders who called him an outsider. In the reply, Goyal said that he was born in Mumbai, completed his education at H R College and Government Law College, and began his Chartered Accountancy practice in Lalbug. He further included that he began working as an investment banker on Nepean Sea Road. He told PTI during an interview “There can be nobody more Mumbaikar than me.”
On Sunday, he again took the responsibility as the Union Cabinet Minister under Modi’s third term but this time as a Lok Sabha member. Goyal belongs to a political background as he is the son of BJP loyalists Chandrakanta Goyal and Ved Prakash Goyal. During the Atal regime, his father took responsibility as the minister of shipping and a BJP national treasurer; while his mother was a three-term MLA from Matunga in Mumbai.
