Venkaiah Naidu: Wise President Nominee, Narendra Tomar Gets Urban Ministry, Smriti Irani Gets I&B

Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu resigned from Prime Minister’s Cabinet and has become a nominee of Wise President post, Smriti Irani got additional charge of the Information & Broadcast Ministry and Narendra Tomar will handle the Ministry for Urban Development from today.

Currently Tomar is the Union Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj whereas Irani is the incumbent Minister for Textiles, as both the Union Ministers lost their portfolios in a Cabinet reshuffle in 2016. Irani was replaced by Prakash Javedekar as the HRD Minister and Piyush Goyal replaced Tomar and was given additional charge of Ministry of Mines.

Yesterday, Naidu was picked as the NDA nominee for the vice presidential election in August.  The decision to nominate Naidu was taken at the BJP parliamentary party meeting. Reportedly, PM Modi was not looking happy while Naidu was leaving his Cabinet. However, Amit Shah pushed his nomination saying the party needs an experienced hand in the Rajya Sabha.

Naidu, who lost his mother when he was 18 months old, reportedly said: ““I feel like I am leaving my mother. BJP has always been a mother to me.”

PM Modi, BJP President Amit Shah and veteran leaders Murli Manohar Joshi and L K Advani accompanied him on Tuesday to file his nomination papers at the Parliament. Leaders from the AIADMK, TRS and Shiv Sena were also present when Naidu filed his papers.