New Delhi:
Seven ministers have tendered their resignation letters ahead of the big ticket cabinet reshuffle on Sunday. The first and biggest of them is External Affairs Minister SM Krishna, who has held the portfolio since May 2009. Mr Krishna is likely to handle party affairs in Karnataka, which goes to polls next year. Mr Krishna is a former Chief Minister of the state.
The other ministers who quit are Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Mukul Wasnik, Tourism Minister Subodh Kant Sahay, Minister of State Tribal Affairs Mahadev Khandela, Minister of State Water Resources Vincent Pala and Minister of State Rural Development Agatha Sangma, who is from the Nationalist Congress Party or the NCP. The Congress leaders are likely to work for the party ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Ms Soni, one of Congress' most prominent faces on TV, made her debut as a minister three years ago when she was given the Information and Broadcasting portfolio in the last Cabinet reshuffle in May, 2009. "I would have to give full time to the party which would entail resigning from the Cabinet. This will require full time work. It will be an honour," Ms Soni said today after submitting her resignation to the PM.
Mr Sahay, who held the Tourism portfolio, was recently embroiled in the coal-gate controversy after it emerged that he lobbied the Prime Minister's Office to intervene on behalf of a firm in which his brother was a director to land coal fields.
Also adding to the list is Ms Sangma. She had also offered to resign earlier this year in July when her father Purno Sangma decided to fight the presidential elections against former Congress veteran Pranab Mukherjee. The NCP has already nominated Tariq Anwar to the government, in place of Ms Sangma.