By IANS,
New Delhi: An affable person with a wide array of interests, Rajiv Shukla who has been appointed minister of state for parliamentary affairs, has connections across the political spectrum.
Shukla, a Congress member of he Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra, has been a member of the upper house since 2000 and has good equations with leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and regional parties.
He is a vice president of Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) and shares his interest in cricket with the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley and Nationalist Congress Party leader and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar.
Shukla was the party’s deputy chief whip in Rajya Sabha before his appointment as a minister and has been a trouble shooter for the party in the house. His equation with with leaders of other parties is expected to serve him well in his new role.
Born in Kanpur in 1959, Shukla started his journalistic innings in the late 1970s. He served as political editor of Sunday and worked in senior editorial positions in Sunday Observer.
His wife Anuradha Prasad heads BAG Films. Anuradha is the sister of BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad.
Shukla was earlier a member of Loktantrik Congress Party and joined Congress in 2003.
He also has friends in the corporate world.