Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani has been given the additional charge of minority affairs ministry after Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi resigned from the Union cabinet on Wednesday. Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia will be in-charge of steel ministry following the resignation of RCP Singh.
Both Naqvi and Singh submitted their resignation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, a day before completion of their Rajya Sabha term.
“The President of India, as advised by the Prime Minister, has accepted the resignations of Shri Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Shri Ram Chandra Prasad Singh from the Union Council of Ministers, with immediate effect, under clause (2) of Article 75 of the Constitution,” a press communique from the Rashtrapati Bhavan said.
Naqvi's resignation came amid rumours that the BJP is actively considering someone from the minority community as its candidate to the post of Vice President. He had met both Modi and BJP president J.P. Nadda earlier in the day.
With the resignation of Naqvi, who was also the Deputy Leader of Rajya Sabha, the BJP will have no Muslim MP among its 395 Members of Parliament. Naqvi was among the three BJP Muslim MPs whose term ended during the recent round of Rajya Sabha polls to 57 seats across 15 states but none of them were renominated by the party.
Singh, a former bureaucrat and once a confidant of Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar, resigned on his birthday, one year after joining the Union cabinet from his party's quota.