PANJIM: BJP’s North Goa MP Shripad Naik, or bhau as he is popularly known, who was inducted in the new Union Council of Ministers, has retained his AYUSH portfolio in the Modi 2.0 team. In addition to AYUSH, Naik has also been given charge as Minister of State for Defence.
Naik, who was part of the Modi government in 2014, won his fifth Lok Sabha election from North Goa.
“I am thankful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah for re-selecting me for induction in the cabinet considering my past performance as a Union minister,” Naik said in a statement.
Naik was considered equal in stature to former CM Manohar Parrikar in state politics and was talked about as the possible successor to the former Defence minister, when the latter died in March this year.
Goa has two Lok Sabha seats and the BJP and the Congress bagged one each in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
