Venkaiah Naidu arrives at the Parliament to file his nomination papers for the upcoming vice presidential election. (Source: Express photo by TAshi Tobgyal) Venkaiah Naidu arrives at the Parliament to file his nomination papers for the upcoming vice presidential election. (Source: Express photo by TAshi Tobgyal)

With Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu resigning from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet, Smriti Irani was given additional charge of the Information & Broadcast Ministry and Narendra Tomar was made the Minister for Urban Development.

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

On Monday, 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. PM Modi was reportedly not inclined on allowing Naidu to leave 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.”

He was accompanied by PM Modi, BJP President Amit Shah and veteran leaders Murli Manohar Joshi and L K Advani 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.

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