Sadananda Gowda tendered his resignation as the Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers on Wednesday, just hours before the major reshuffle in the Union cabinet led by PM Narendra Modi. He had taken over the ministry in November 2018 after the demise of former Union minister Ananth Kumar. Gowda has confirmed his resignation to IANS.
Since 2014, Gowda has held several portfolios in the first and second Modi Cabinet. He has served as the Union Minister for Railways, Law, Statistics and Programme Implementation. He is the Member of Parliament from Bengaluru North Constituency for two consecutive terms and was a Lok Sabha MP from Udupi Chikmagalur Constituency.
Sadananda Gowda also served as the Chief Minister of Karnataka from August 2011 to July 2012. He was handpicked by BS Yediyurappa but was asked to step down soon after, making way for Jagadish Shettar. His resignation from the Union cabinet, according to sources, is to make way for another Vokkaliga face from Coastal Karnataka —Shobha Karandlaje who is expected to make her debut as Union Minister.
Apart from Sadananda Gowda, several other ministers of the Modi Cabinet including Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, MoS Health Ashwin Choubey, Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal “Nishank”, MoS Education Ramesh Pokhriyal, Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar, Minister of State for Environment Babul Supriyo have resigned ahead of the reshuffle.
Sources added that around 43 persons may take the oath, and they will be a mix of new faces and those with administrative experience, including former chief ministers. Union ministers RK Singh, Mansukh Mandaviya and Hardeep Singh Puri may also be promoted, they said. Several new faces are expected to be inducted with focus on states going to polls in the coming months like Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.
The expansion exercise is scheduled to be held at 6 pm at Rashtrapati Bhawan. This will be the first reshuffle in his Council of Ministers by Modi since he assumed charge for a second term in May 2019.