Rajiv Pratap Rudy resigns from Modi Cabinet, several other ministers offer to quit

Ahead of the reshuffle in the union council of ministers, as many as six ministers- including Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Kalraj Mishra and Mahendra Pandey- have reportedly tendered their resignation to the party at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP Chief Amit Shah.

Prime Minister Modi had himself conveyed this over the last few days to the ministers and assigned future roles for them, sources said. The ministers met Shah on Thursday and gave their resignations. General Secretary (Organisation) Ram Lal, who is RSS pointsman in the BJP, was present when the resignations were submitted.

MSME Minister Kalraj Mishra has resigned from his post as he had crossed the 75-year mark set for all union ministers. He is likely to be made a Governor and will most likely occupy the Bihar Raj Bhawan. Ram Nath Kovind was the Governor before he became President of India last month. Six Governor posts are vacant at present.


Sources said Rudy has resigned from the post of Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Skill Development Ministry. He will work for the party.

Minister of State for HRD Mahendra Nath Pandey has resigned from his post. The Chandauli MP has been appointed as BJP UP unit Chief.

Minister of State for Water Resources Sanjeev Balyan and MoS MSME Giriraj Singh have also resigned, according to sources. However, there was no confirmation till going to press.

Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti has offered to resign on health grounds. She has been keeping indifferent health for the past few months and reportedly wants to work for the Namami Gange project as well as work for the BJP.

Some more resignations are likely on Friday.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is likely to be divested of the Defence Ministry portfolio, of which he is holding additional charge. He said on Thursday that he will not be occupying the Defence Minister post for long, hinting at the imminent reshuffle. Suresh Prabhu is likely to be moved out of the Railway Ministry.

He had offered to resign last week after the Utkal Express derailment but the Prime Minister had asked him to wait for sometime.

Health Minister J P Nadda is a front-runner for the post of Himachal Pradesh CM candidate from his party. It is not clear if he will resign or continue till the elections in December.

Speculations are on about the new faces. NDA partners are likely to get some important portfolios. Deputy Speaker Thambidurai and Rajya Sabha MP V Maitreyan are likely to be inducted into the cabinet from AIADMK. RCP Singh of JDU is likely to get a cabinet berth while Santosh Paswan may get MoS rank. There is still no clarity on whether NCP will join the NDA and become a part of the government.

Sources said the Cabinet expansion and reshuffle is likely to happen on September 2 in the evening. President Kovind will be back from Tirupati on Saturday while Shah is likely to come back from the RSS Meet at Mathura for the swearing-in.

Modi leaves for a visit to China and Myanmar at noon on September 3.