Once seen as a spokesman of the government on internal security matters, Sriprakash Jaiswal was on Wednesday elevated to Cabinet rank and retained in the coal ministry.
A three-time Lok Sabha member from Kanpur, Jaiswal's elevation to the Cabinet rank comes at a time when elections are scheduled in Uttar Pradesh, where he served as the state unit chief of the Congress.
He has shed the portfolio of statistics and programme implementation, which is usually held by a minister of state. In the first term of the United progressive Alliance, Jaiswal was the minister of state for home affairs and held forth in the media on matters related to internal security.
Born on September 25, 1944, Jaiswal has risen gradually in the ranks in the Congress party. From being the mayor of Kanpur city, the industrial hub of Uttar Pradesh, in 1989-92, he went on to become the state unit chief in 1999-2000.
He was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1999 and was member of Parliamentary Committee on Petroleum and Chemicals and the joint committee dealing with the salaries and allowances granted to MPs.
Following his re-election in 2004, Jaiswal was made the minister of state for home affairs, a post that often brought him brickbats for being ever ready with stock comments on any internal security situation.
His return to the Lok Sabha in 2009 saw him being elevated as a minister of state with independent charge. This is his second promotion within a span of two years.
