New Delhi, May 14: In a major Cabinet reshuffle of the Modi government just a year ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Smriti Irani has been removed from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry as Rajyavardhan Rathore will now take independent charge of the portfolio.
Also, the Finance Ministry, which was being handled by Arun Jaitley since 2014, will now be headed by Piyush Goyal who will be handling the additional portfolio along with the Railway Ministry.
Jaitley underwent a kidney transplant at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences here on Monday morning. With him expected to be out of action for six to eight weeks, Goyal was given the additional charge.
Smriti Irani will now only handle the Textile Ministry. She was earlier removed as the HRD Minister and was replaced by Prakash Javadekar.