India / IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad resigns before Union Cabinet expansion

New Delhi: Union ministers Prakash Javadekar and Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday resigned from their posts ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's major cabinet reshuffle. Ravi Shankar Prasad was the minister of law and information technology while Prakash Javadekar was the environment minister. Both these big-ticket resignations came to much surprise as Ravi Shankar Prasad was at the forefront of the government's new IT rules for which the government is at loggerheads with Twitter. Prakash Javadekar's exit from this ministry has also been surprising as he was also the spokesperson of the government.

Ahead of the Cabinet reshuffle scheduled to begin at 6pm on Wednesday, health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal, chemicals and fertilisers minister DV Sadananda Gowda, labour minister Santosh Gangwar, education minister of state Sanjay Dhotre, minister of state for women and child development Debasree Chaudhuri, minister of state for jal shakti Rattan Lal Kataria and minister of state for environment Babul Supriyo stepped down from their posts.

Thaawarchand Gehlot who was in charge of the social justice and empowerment ministry had resigned on Tuesday and was made the Governor of Karnataka.

In a major reshuffle that will bring focus on equal representation of gender, caste and community, 36 new ministers on Wednesday took oath and seven ministers of state are being promoted.