After Impressive Win in Lok Sabha Polls, Harsh Vardhan Given Health & Family Welfare Ministry

New Delhi: Harsh Vardhan has been given Minister of Health and Family Welfare in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new cabinet.

He will once again take charge of the Minister of Science and Technology and Ministry of Earth Sciences. The sitting MP from Delhi’s Chandni Chowk constituency, won with a massive lead of over three lakh votes in the Lok Sabha elections.

In a triangular fight among the Congress party's JP Agarwal and Aam Aadmi Party’s Pankaj Gupta, Vardhan bagged over 54% of the vote share. Incidentally, Chandni Chowk is known to be a bellwether seat of Delhi.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Vardhan had garnered 4.37 lakh votes (45%), defeating two-time Congress incumbent Kapil Sibal with a margin of over 2.61 lakh votes, while AAP's Ashutosh — who quit the party last year citing personal reasons — came in second with a more than three lakh votes (31%).Political past

Vardhan was first elected in 1993 as member of the Legislative Assembly of Delhi from the Krishna Nagar Vidhan Sabha, after which he became Minister of Law and Minister of Health in the Government of Delhi.

As Minister of Health, Vardhan launched Polio Eradication Plan in October 1994.

The Delhi Prohibition of Smoking Act and the Non-Smokers Health Protection Act were passed in 1997 under his leadership as well. This culminated in a central legislation in 2002, which banned smoking in public places and brought relief to many citizens.