High expectations from Rijiju

Minister of state (independent) for sports and youth affairs, Kiren Rijiju has been promoted to the cabinet rank and was sworn in as a union minister on Wednesday. Rijiju has created some sort of history by becoming the first from the state to achieve the milestone of being inducted as a cabinet minister in the government of India. He along with former CM of Assam, Sarbananda Sonowal has been inducted as cabinet minister. With this, there will be massive expectations from Rijiju. He is into his third term as MP from Arunachal West parliamentary constituency.

His voters are increasingly alleging that Rijiju has not been able to bring much development in his constituency. His stock within the RSS and the central BJP has considerably risen in the last few years. His hawkish stand against the Congress, in particular regular tweets attacking Rahul Gandhi, seems to have worked in his favour. Rijiju is also emerging as the poster boy of Hindutva politics. Even though a large number of his voters come from religious and ethnic minorities, Rijiju has never uttered a word against continued persecution of religious minorities in India. Also, two of his major pet projects, especially the Frontier Highway and the East-West Corridor, are yet to see light of day.

People of the state will be hoping that these projects finally get a green signal from the central government.