NEW DELHI: India’s health minister, and many other ministers, resigned ahead of a cabinet reshuffle on Wednesday, officials said, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking to reinvigorate an administration that has been heavily criticised for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Health Minister Harsh Vardhan quit, a source close to the minister said, paying the political price for the government’s struggles to cope with a devastating second wave of coronavirus infections.
2. Sarbananda Sonowal
3. Virendra Kumar
4. Jyotiraditya M Scindia
5. Ramchandra Prasad Singh
6. Ashwini Vaishnaw
7. Pashu Pati Kumar Paras
8. Kiren Rijiju
9. Raj Kumar Singh
10. Hardeep Singh Puri
11. Mansukh Mandaviya
12. Bhupender Yadav
13. Parshottam Rupala
14. G. Kishan Reddy
15. Anurag Singh Thakur
16. Pankaj Choudhary
17. Anupriya Singh Patel
18. Satya Pal Singh Baghel
19. Rajeev Chandrasekhar
20. Sushri Shobha Karandlaje
21. Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma
22 Darshana Vikram Jardosh
23 Meenakashi Lekhi
24. Annpurna Devi
25 A. Narayanaswamy
26 Kaushal Kishore
27. Ajay Bhatt
28. B.L. Verma
29. Ajay Kumar
30. Chauhan Devusinh
31. Bhagwanth Khuba
32. Kapil Moreshwar Patil
33. Sushri Pratima Bhoumik
34. Subhas Sarkar
35. Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad
36. Rajkumar Ranjan Singh
37. Bharati Pravin Pawar
38. Bishweswar Tudu
39. Shantanu Thakur
40. Munjapara Mahendrabhai
41. John Barla
42. L. Murugan
43. Nisith Pramanik
Also, Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal “Nishank” and Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister D V Sadananda Gowda have resigned.
Besides Pokhriyal and Gowda, who were cabinet ministers, Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar, Minister of State for Education Sanjay Dhotre and Minister of State for Women and Child Development Debasree Chaudhuri have also quit.
Pokhriyal, who tested positive for COVID-19 on April 21, was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here in June again following post-Covid complications. He has resigned from his post citing health reasons, sources said. The former Uttarakhand chief minister took charge as the HRD Minister in May 2019.
Dhotre, who represents the Akola Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra, also took charge as the MoS for Education, Communications and Electronics and Information Technology in May 2019.
Chaudhuri submitted her resignation in the morning, one of her close aides said. She was elected to the Lok Sabha from West Bengal’s Raiganj constituency in the 2019 general elections.
Asked whether he has resigned from the post of Labour Minister, Gangwar answered in the affirmative. “Yes, I have resigned,” he told PTI.
Gangwar said he is not aware what his new role in the government will be.
The ministers for finance, foreign affairs, home and defence, however, were unlikely to be changed, according to the reports.
Before announcing his first cabinet reshuffle since winning a second term in 2019, Modi consulted leaders of his Bharatiya Janata Party, a government official said.
State-run All India Radio said Modi is expected to name younger members of his party to be ministers and also give greater representation to women.
There are plans for a ceremony to swear-in new ministers at the presidential palace at 6pm (1230 GMT), an official at the palace said. Only a small number of people will be attending the ceremony due to the coronavirus risk.
Modi’s government has faced its most stinging criticism in years as the infections and deaths surged in April and May, overwhelming hospitals and crematoriums.
Images of bodies of presumed COVID-19 victims washed up on the banks of the Ganges river fuelled outrage over a failure to do more to protect vulnerable communities.
