In massive cabinet rejig, 12 Indian ministers step down

In the latest cabinet rejig, 43 new ministers are going to take oath as 12 existing ministers have resigned from the government till now.

According to Indian Media, the union ministers that have tendered their resignations till now are as follows:

1. Harsh Vardhan, Minister of Health and Family Welfare
2. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Minister of Human Resource Development
3. Santosh Gangwar, Minister of State with independent charge in the Ministry of Labour and Employment
4. Sadananda Gowda, Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers 
5. Debasree Chaudhuri, Minister of State for Woman and Child Development
6. Sanjay Dhotre, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology
7. Thawar Chand Gehlot, Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment
8. Babul Supriyo, Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change
9. Pratap Sarangi, Minister of State for Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
10. Rattan Lal Kataria, Minister of State for Jal Shakti
11. Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Law and Justice, Electronics and Information Technology and Communications
12. Prakash Javadekar, Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Minister of Information and Broadcasting and Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises

Among those who resigned, Thawar Chand Gehlot has already been appointed as the governor of Karnataka. West Bengal BJP leader Babul Supriyo informed on Facebook that he had been asked to resign.

However, later he rephrased that sentence to say “Yes, I have resigned from the Council Of Ministers”.

The resignations will make way for new ministers that will join the union ministry after the swearing-in ceremony.

The Cabinet expansion had also become necessary due to the death of union ministers, and the exit of NDA allies Shiv Sena and Akali Dal.

Sources say the resignations are a result of the PM's review of their ministries.

BJP sources say that PM Modi is sending a "message" through these resignations, that he wants to make critical changes in key ministries before 2024.

With changes in the ministries, PM Modi is creating a new set of leaders and bench strength, they say.