New Delhi:
Minority Affairs Minister Najma A Heptulla and MoS G M Siddeshwara on Tuesday tendered their resignations. President Pranab Mukherjee has accepted their resignation with immediate effect.
The president has directed MA Naqvi, Minister of State, to take over as Independent charge of Ministry of Minority Affairs.
The portfolio of Minister of State in the Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises has been assigned to Babul Supriyo. He will be relieved of charge of MoS in Ministry of Urban Development, and MoS in Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation.
There was speculation last week when Prime Minister Narendra Modi undertook the reshuffle that Heptulla and Minister of Small and Medium Enterprises Kalraj Mishra, who had recently turned 75, could be asked to quit.
Modi is believed to have set an age bar of 75 years for ministers and had kept veterans like L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi out of the Cabinet and co-opted them in ‘Margdarshak Mandal’.
(With PTI inputs)
