Piyush Goyal replaces Arun Jaitley as Union Finance Minister

New Delhi: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arun Jaitley, who underwent a kidney transplant at the AIIMS here on Monday morning, has been replaced by Railways Minister Piyush Goyal as the Union Finance Minister, confirmed a highly placed source.

Goyal has been given the additional charge of the Finance Ministry till Jaitley fully recovers from his ailment and gets ready to return, added the source.

Apart from this big reshuffle in the cabinet, Rajyavardhan Rathore has been given the charge of Information and Broadcasting Ministry. The ministry was earlier being looked after by Smriti Irani who is also heading the Textile ministry.

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SS Ahluwalia has been relieved of the charge of MoS (Drinking Water & Sanitation) and has been assigned the portfolio of MoS (Electronics and IT ministry) which was earlier held by Alphons Kannanthanam.

Jaitley's surgery was successful at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) with both recipient and donor recovering well. Jaitley was admitted to the hospital on Saturday.

It may be recalled that he has mostly been working from home since April 2018 due to the ailment. He was admitted to the hospital on Saturday last.