Bengaluru, June 9 : Senior BJP leader from Karnataka, Shobha Karandlaje, was sworn in for a new role as a Minister of State in the new NDA government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday.





She held the portfolio of Minister of State (MoS) for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare in the previous BJP government at the Centre.



Shobha won the Bengaluru North Lok Sabha seat with a record margin of 2.59 lakh votes, defeating her nearest rival, M.V. Rajeev Gowda, a former professor from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Bengaluru. She garnered 56.3 per cent votes against Gowda's 41.5 per cent.



Shobha (57) is a close confidant of former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa and also served as the Minister of Rural Development, Minister of Food and Civil Supplies, and Minister of Energy in Karnataka.



Shobha is unmarried and has been associated with the RSS since her early years. She has a postgraduate degree in Social Work from Mangaluru University and a Master of Arts in Sociology from Karnataka State Open University.



/IANS