Tamil Nadu BJP President L Murugan has on Thursday taken charge as the Union Minister, a day after swearing-in to the Central Ministry. Murugan has become one of the significant inductions in the central ministry. He was among the 43 leaders who were sworn in as the Union Ministers on Wednesday. Of 43 ministers, 15 were made cabinet ministers and 28 were made ministers of state. 

Murugan is in the club of 28 ministers and has on Thursday taken charge as the Union Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying. Murugan will be working along with Sanjeev Balayan and he will be reporting to Parshottam Rupala, who is the Cabinet Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying. 

The ministry has various sectors - animal husbandry, dairy, poultry, and fishery. Murugan is yet to be allocated with the responsible sections. After taking charge, Murugan has said that he will work for the welfare of farmers across the country. He further asserted that the Union government will function for the betterment of Tamil fishermen and has said that no fisherman was attacked by Sri Lankan forces since 2014.

Murugan is one of Modi's surprise picks as there were no predictions that Tamil Nadu will get a representation at the Union Ministry. 44-year-old Murugan, a native of Namakkal in Tamil Nadu, was serving as the Tamil Nadu BJP President for over a year and his induction into the Union Ministry is expected to give a crucial boost to the party in the state and he was instrumental in the party in sending the representations to the Tamil Nadu assembly after two decades. The berth in Modi's ministry is a reward for Murugan for sending four BJP MLAs into the Tamil Nadu assembly. 

According to reports, Murugan will soon be elected as an MP from any of the BJP ruling states as the constitution mandates that the Central ministers must have been elected to any of the two chambers of the Parliament. He will be the second BJP president of Tamil Nadu to become Union Minister after Pon Radhakrishnan and Murugan's immediate predecessor Tamilisai Soundararajan was made the Governor of Telangana. 

With Murugan's political elevation, he will likely be resigning from the post of Tamil Nadu BJP President and his resignation would prompt a significant race in Tamil Nadu between the second-line party leaders to succeed Murugan as the BJP President. Murugan had served as Vice Chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes before becoming the BJP state president in Tamil Nadu.

He was appointed as the Tamil Nadu BJP President last year when he had his tenure left as the vice-chairman. He has over 15 years of experience as an advocate and has been the standing counsel to the Indian government at Madras High Court since BJP had come to power. Murugan was the second leader from the Dalit community to become the state president. 

He had worked for the ABVP in his college days. Murugan had completed his undergraduate degree in law and earned a Master in International Law and International Organizations from Madras University. As a long-time BJP associate, Murugan had contested in the 2011 Tamil Nadu Assembly polls from the Rasipuram constituency. Eventually, he lost the race to the ADMK candidate and conceded to third place. 

After becoming the BJP President, Murugan had also contested in the 2021 state assembly polls from the Dharapuram constituency. However, he had lost the election by a margin of 812 votes against DMK's N Kayalvizhi. Two months after losing the elections, Murugan has now won a place in Modi's cabinet as the Union Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, and Dairying.