In a big cabinet reshuffle on Monday, Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal was given a temporary charge of the Ministry of Finance till current Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley recovers from his surgery, while Smriti Irani has been moved out of the I&B Ministry to the Ministry of Textile again.
The charge as independent MoS of I&B has now been given to Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, who also had the MoS (Minister of State) independent charge of the Ministry of Sports. SS Ahluwalia has been given the charge of the Electronics and Information Technology after being relieved from the charge of MoS Drinking Water and Sanitation Ministry. Goyal will handle the power ministry too.
Alphons Kannanthanam, who has been relieved as MoS in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, continues as MoS for tourism. Smriti Irani's tenure as the I&B Minister was mired in controversy. This is the second time that Irani has been moved from a key ministry as she was earlier shifted from the HRD Ministry to the relatively low-profile textile ministry.
Current Finance Minister Jaitley, 65, has been mostly working from home since early April due to kidney problem. He underwent a successful kidney transplant at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on Monday and is stable after the over four-hour-long surgery, hospital authorities said.
Both the donor and the recipient are stable and recovering with a team of senior doctors monitoring their condition round-the-clock, authorities said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Jaitley, hours before he underwent the surgery on Monday morning. Sources said Modi was in touch with Jaitley's family and had been getting updates on his health through the day. AIIMS sources said the kidney was donated to Jaitley by a distant relative, a middle-aged woman.
With PTI inputs