Cabinet Reshuffle: Health, Education, Labour Ministers Quit Ahead of Big Reshuffle

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to reshuffle the Cabinet on Wednesday(July 7). The reshuffle follows a protracted review exercise by the PM in a series of meetings with Ministers. These were held in the wake of the handling of the second wave. It had set off widespread criticism of the Government for the mismanagement of the crisis.

Ahead of the much-anticipated reshuffle of the Union Cabinet, several ministers have already resigned. Some of them are Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar. Also Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal has resigned from the Union Cabinet.

Several other ministers including Santosh Gangwar, Babul Supriyo, Debasree Chaudhuri, Rattan Lal Kataria. Also  Sanjay Dhotre, Thawarchand Gehlot, Pratap Chandra Sarangi (MoS) and Ashwini Chaubey (MoS) have also tendered their resignation.

Here’s the list of ministers who have resigned ahead of the scheduled Cabinet reshuffle:

• Dr Harsh Vardhan (Union Health Minister)
• Thawar Chand Gehlot (Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment)
• Ramesh Pokhriyal (Union Education Minister)
• Sadananda Gowda (Union Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister)
• Santosh Gangwar (Union Labour and Employment Minister)
• Debasree Chaudhuri (MoS Women and Child Development)
• Rattan Lal Kataria (MoS Jal Shakti and Social Justice & Empowerment)
• Sanjay Dhotre (MoS State for Education)
• Pratap Chandra Sarangi (MoS Animal Husbandry)
• Raosaheb Patil (MoS Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution)
• Ashwini Chaubey (MoS Health)

The expansion will see the entry of several new faces in the Union Cabinet. Though there is no official confirmation on the reshuffle, the arrival of BJP leaders Sarbananda Sonowal, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Narayan Rane in Delhi increased the speculations that they are likely to be inducted into the new Council. The announcement will be made around 6.00 pm.

The ministerial probables met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his residence. Those meeting Modi included BJP’s Narayan Rane, Sarbananda Sonowal, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Ajay Bhatt, Bhupender Yadav, Shobha Karandlaje, Sunita Duggal, Meenakshi Lekhi, Bharati Pawar, Shantanu Thakur and Kapil Patil, JD(U)’s R C P Singh, LJP’s Pashupati Paras and Apna Dal’s Anupriya Patel.

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