3 Union ministers' resignation accepted, portfolios farmed out

President Droupadi Murmu on Thursday accepted the resignations of Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar, Prahlad Singh Patel and Renuka Singh Saruta, who successfully contested the recent assembly polls, and assigned Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda the additional charge of agriculture ministry.

According to a communique  issued by Rashtrapati Bhavan, the President accepted their resignations from the Union Council of Ministers as advised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The communique said that further, on the advice of the prime minister, the President gave additional charge of the agriculture ministry and farmer's welfare to Munda, while Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar has been given 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 communique 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.

Union ministers Tomar, Patel and Saruta resigned as the BJP had decided that all of its 12 MPs recently elected to state assemblies will quit Parliament, amid strong indications that they may join the new governments in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.

Saruta, a Lok Sabha MP from Chhattisgarh, had recently contested state assembly elections and won the Bharatpur-Sonhat seat.

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.

All except Meena are Lok Sabha members. Meena is a Rajya Sabha member.