4 Union Ministers Given Additional Portfolios After Prez Murmu Accepts Resignations of MPs

President Droupadi Murmu on Thursday accepted the resignations of Union Ministers Narendra Singh Tomar, Prahlad Singh Patel and Renuka Singh Saruta from the Union Cabinet.

BJP leaders Tomar, Patel and Saruta submitted their resignations from the Union Cabinet on Friday a day after they quit their Lok Sabha membership. The leaders resigned after they won the assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh last week.

According to a communique issued by the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the President accepted their resignations from the Union Council of Ministers as advised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has assigned their charges to four Union Ministers.

Union Minister Arjun Munda has been assigned the charge of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.

Shobha Karandlaje, Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, has been assigned the charge of the Minister of State in Food Processing Industries in addition to her existing portfolio.

Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar has been assigned the charge of the Minister of State in Ministry of Jal Shakti, in addition to his existing portfolios.

Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Dr Bharti Pravin Pawar has been given additional charge of the Minister of State in the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

Union ministers Tomar, Patel and Saruta resigned as the BJP had decided that all of its 12 MPs recently elected to state assemblies will quit Parliament, amid strong indications that they may join the new governments in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. Saruta, a Lok Sabha MP from Chhattisgarh, had recently contested state assembly elections and won the Bharatpur-Sonhat seat.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday said he has accepted the resignation of nine Lok Sabha MPs, including Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Prahlad Patel. The MPs, who are from the BJP, had resigned after winning in the recent assembly polls.

Besides the two Union ministers, the other Lok Sabha MPs who resigned are Rakesh Singh, Udya Pratap Singh and Riti Pathak from Madhya Pradesh, Diya Kumari and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore from Rajasthan, and Gomati Sai and Arun Sao from Chhattisgarh. Rajya Sabha MP Kirodi Lal Meena has also resigned.