Big move by PM Modi! Former BCCI president Anurag Thakur appointed MoS, Ministry of Finance

Earlier this month, while addressing an election rally in Himachal Pradesh, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah had promised to make Anurag Thakur a "big leader" if voters in Hamirpur elected him with a record margin. Keeping his word, Thakur was sworn in as an Union minister on Thursday and was appointed as Minister of State in Ministry of Finance on Friday afternoon. He has also been appointed as Minister of State in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Thakur, the son of former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, had won the Hamirpur constituency for the fourth time by defeating Ram Lal Thakur of the Congress by nearly four lakh votes, a record margin for the constituency. 

Anurag Thakur had got a vote share of 69.04 per cent by bagging over 6.8 lakh votes. Hailing from Samirpur village in Hamirpur district, Anurag Thakur was elected as an MP for the first time in a by-election in May 2008. He followed it up with successive victories in the 2009 and 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

"You elect Anurag with a record margin, I will make him a big leader," Amit Shah had urged the voters at an election rally in Bilaspur, Hamirpur, on May 12. Thakur is a former Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) president and had led a march from Kolkata to Srinagar under the banner of 'Rashtriya Ekta Yatra' to unfurl the national flag at Lal Chowk on 26 January, 2011.

Born on 24 October, 1974, Anurag Thakur did his graduation from the Doaba College in Punjab's Jalandhar, where his father used to teach before joining politics. Notably, he has also been the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) from May 2016-February 2017. Thakur's tenure had ended after the Supreme Court had ordered to remove him for trying to hinder the implementation of the Lodha reforms. Later, he filed a petition in the apex court in August last year to get "his side of the story heard".

Anurag Thakur had received the 'Best Young Parliamentarian Award' in 2011. He had also remained chief whip of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Lok Sabha.