Cabinet reshuffle: Along with Kalraj Mishra, five other ministers have quit since Thursday
Kalraj Mishra, one of the six ministers to lose their job in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's big cabinet reshuffle tomorrow, says he was stepping down on his own. Mr Mishra said he was too old to be a minister and his exit from PM Modi's revamped council of ministers had nothing to do with his performance as minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
"I am 77 now and offered to step down. The PM has lauded my work at the ministry and appreciated the fact that I offered to step down," he told NDTV today.
Mr Mishra, who had joined the cabinet in 2014 when PM Modi took oath, said his future will be decided by the party. "When I completed 76 years, I told the leadership that they can take any decision about me...This time when I offered to resign, the Prime Minister got emotional... PM said my strengths will be used," he said.
Along with Mr Mishra, five other union ministers have resigned since Thursday evening - Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Sanjeev Balyan, Faggan Singh Kulaste, Mahendra Nath Pandey and Bandaru Dattatreya - to make way for new faces.
The cabinet reshaping - the third in as many years - has been due for months now, especially in the scenario of vacancies and shifting alliances. The mega exercise is expected to fill key cabinet vacancies and also bring into the council of ministers, leaders from states where elections will be held soon.