Rajyavardhan Rathore is among the ministers of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's previous government who were not given a place in the new cabinet. Mr Rathore, a BJP parliamentarian from Rajasthan, won a second term in the national election. The 49-year-old is one of the most prominent exclusions from the new team of ministers who were sworn in along with PM Modi on Thursday. But there is every possibility that the silver-medal winning Olympian and retired army colonel may play a role in the Rajasthan unit of the BJP. In the summer of 2018, the BJP was looking to change the party president in Rajasthan after its disastrous performance in the January by-election. The party had decided to give the job to Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, who is the lawmaker from Jodhpur. But this was not acceptable to a section of the leaders, including then chief minister Vasundhara Raje, who felt that an upper caste Rajput may alienate the other communities in Rajasthan, especially the Jats.