Minority Affairs Minister Najma Heptulla and GM Siddeswara, Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises,who had crossed 75 years,have been dropped from the Union council of ministers. With these two resignations, the strength of the council of ministers is now 76. The number of ministers cannot exceed 82. Heptulla is the 1st Cabinet minister to have been dropped in the two-year term of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led council of ministers.
PM Modi is believed to have set an age bar of 75 years for ministers and had kept veterans like LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi out of the Cabinet and co-opted them in ‘Margdarshak Mandal’.
- Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Heptulla’s junior at the minority affairs ministry, would now have independent charge of the ministry. Babul Supriyo, a minister of state, has been shifted from the ministry of urban development to heavy industries and public enterprises.
- Heptulla, an aspirant for the post of the Vice President of India, could get a gubernatorial assignment. Governors to a few states are likely to be announced later. Vice Presidential elections are due for August 2017.
- AT present, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Minister Kalraj Mishra, who is 75, is the oldest minister. He is an important Brahmin leader of Uttar Pradesh, which is slated to go to polls in early 2017.
- Heptulla is a veteran Rajya Sabha member. A Dawoodi Bohra Muslim from Bhopal, Heptulla was handpicked by the then PM Indira Gandhi in the 1980s and served in key positions in the Congress party and as Deputy Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha in the 1980s and 1990s.
- After three decades in the Congress, Heptulla, who holds a PhD in cardiac anatomy, had joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2004 is a known L K Advani.
