Faggan Singh Kulaste: The Union Minister Who Attempts Recovery Of Tribal Niwas
Adding the exit poll results to their ‘reason of hope’, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Madhya Pradesh is in huge expectation to retain the state government with an impressive margin, unaffected by the Congress wind. The party fielded seven MPs and three Union Minister’s for the state legislative polls this year and is trying huge to block all the windows that were said to favour Congress. Faggan Singh Kulaste was one such candidate fielded by BJP for the Niwas constituency, straight from the national leadership. Niwas is predominantly a tribal occupied area and Mr Kulaste is a well-known tribal leader of BJP.
Mr Kulaste is the incumbent Union Minister of State for Rural Development and Steel of India and is one of the senior members of the party. He contested against INC’s Chainsingh Warkade in the 2023 state assembly elections of Madhya Pradesh. The constituency is currently represented by Dr Ashok Marskole of Congress, who won the 2018 polls by a margin of over 8,000 votes.
Faggan Singh Kulaste was born on May 18, 1859 in Mandla in Madhya Pradesh. After completing post-graduation, he secured a B Ed and then a Bachelors in Law. Mr Kulaste became a member of the Madhya Pradesh legislative assembly in 1990 and remained in office till 1992. He was a member of the 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 16th, and 17th He represented the Mandla Lok Sabha Parliamentary seat from 1996 to 2009. He lost the seat to INC’s Basori Singh Masram in the 2009 elections and waited till 2012 to get elected to the Rajya Sabha.
Mr Kulaste regained the seat in 2014 Lok Sabha by defeating his Congress counterpart Omkar Markam. During his tenure from 1999 to 2023, he handled various departments in the central cabinet. Mr Kulaste was the Union Minister of Tribal Affairs from 1999-2004 under the Prime Ministry of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He was also assigned with the charge of Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs in 1999 for two months.
He was also part of the first cabinet under the Prime Ministry of Narendra Modi. He served as the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare from 2016-2017. In the second Narendra Modi government, Mr Kulaste was assigned as the Minister of Rural Development and Steel, and he resumes the position.
Faggan Singh Kulaste was also the National President of BJP Scheduled Tribes Morcha and served two terms in 2004 and 2010. He was the General Secretary of BJP Madhya Pradesh and completed two terms from 2006 to 2010. Niwas is predominantly a tribal area and Mr Kulaste was active in the BJP led tribal activities from his earlier days of political activities itself.
