RS Prasad, Prakash Javadekar & 10 others resign from Cabinet ahead of oath-taking ceremony

In a breaking development minutes before the scheduled oath-taking ceremony of the new Cabinet Ministers at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the President of India has accepted the resignation of 12 sitting Union ministers. Amongst the 12 names, Union Law & IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Prakash Javadekar, who heads the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting are the two big names to exit PM Modi's new Cabinet.

Earlier in the day, Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal and Health Minister Harsh Vardhan had tendered their resignation to make way for the new inductees into the Cabinet. Ravi Shankar Prasad's resignation comes amid the IT Ministry ongoing tussle with Twitter and other social media platforms over the new IT rules that came into force on May 26. While it was expected that Ravi Shankar Prasad would be divested of his additional portfolios to strengthen PM Modi's new Cabinet and inject some young blood into his team, it remains to be seen which of the 15 leaders, expected to takeover Cabinet Ministries today, holds fills in RS Prasad's boots.

Here is the list of all the 12 Council of Ministers whose resignation has been accepted by the President: 

1. D.V. Sadananda Gowda
2. Ravi Shankar Prasad
3. Thaawarchand Gehlot
4. Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’
5. Dr. Harsh Vardhan
6. Prakash Javadekar
7. Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar
8. Shri Babul Supriyo
9. Shri Dhotre Sanjay Shamrao
10. Shri Rattan Lal Kataria
11. Pratap Chandra Sarangi
12. Sushri Debasree Chaudhuri

After the Union Cabinet expansion, PM Modi's team will have 27 OBCs which is the highest representation of this community since Independence, Republic TV learnt. As per sources, this is more than the proportion of the OBC population of the country. Moreover, 5 Ministers from the OBC quota will be inducted into the Union Cabinet. Overall, sources indicated that the new Council of Ministers will give more representation in terms of caste, religion, region and experience than several other governments in the past.

Overall caste & gender representation:

• 22 women out of which two will be in the Cabinet
• 27 OBC members out of which 5 will be in the Cabinet
• 12 SC members out of which two will be in the Cabinet
• 8 ST members out of which three will be in the Cabinet