Union Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda will also hold the portfolio of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare after Narendra Tomar resigned as MP. Narendra Tomar resigned after he won the Dimani Assembly seat in Madhya Pradesh after getting 79,137 votes.
Arjun Munda was the Jharkhand Chief Minister three times and was appointed the Union Minister of Tribal Affairs in May 2019.
On Thursday, President Droupadi Murmu, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s advice, accepted the resignation of Narendra Tomar and assigned the charge of the Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Ministry to Munda in addition to his existing portfolio.
Three other Ministers of State (MoS) — Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Shobha Karandlaje and Bharti Pravin Pawar were also given additional charges.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, was given the additional charge of Jal Shakti as MoS.
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, the communiqué said.
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.
The President also accepted the resignation of BJP leaders Prahlad Singh Patel and Renuka Singh Saruta from the Union cabinet. Prahlad Patel won the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections from Narsingpur constituency while Renuka Singh won from the Bharatpur-Sonhat assembly seat in Chhattisgarh.
The Union Ministers resigned as the BJP decided that all of its MPs recently elected to state assemblies would quit Parliament, amid strong indications that they may join the new governments in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.
Other MPs who quit are Rakesh Singh, Udya Pratap Singh and Riti Pathak from Madhya Pradesh; Kirodi Lal Meena, Diya Kumari and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore from Rajasthan and Gomati Sai and Arun Sao from Chhattisgarh.
