NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Two Indian ministers resigned on Tuesday, a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi expanded his powerful inner circle to improve the efficiency of his administration.
India's president, on Modi's advice, has accepted the resignations of Najma A. Heptulla, the minister of minority affairs, and G.M. Siddeshwara, the junior minister of heavy industries, the government said in a statement.
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, a junior minister in the minority affairs ministry, has been given independent charge of the ministry, while Babul Supriyo, a singer-turned-politician, would take up the junior minister's portfolio in the heavy industries ministry, the statement added.
The government did not give a reason for the decision.
Modi inducted 19 new ministers into his cabinet last Tuesday to bolster his two-year-old administration but drew criticism that he was backtracking on a promise of lean government.