Photo: Prime Minister's Office / PMO via Wikimedia Commons, reproduced with credit
Union Minister of State L Murugan resigned from the Narendra Modi government on Tuesday, October 13, and asked to be allowed to give up his Rajya Sabha membership, saying he wants to devote himself full-time to building the Bharatiya Janata Party in Tamil Nadu.
What the letter says
Murugan, who holds the Information and Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs portfolios as Minister of State, set out his decision in a letter to the Prime Minister that he also posted on X. He called his time in government the “greatest honour” of his life and asked Modi to relieve him of his duties.
With humility and a grateful heart, I therefore request you to relieve me of my responsibilities as Minister of State and permit me to relinquish my membership of the Rajya Sabha, so that I may dedicate myself full-time to strengthening the party in Tamil Nadu.
L Murugan, in his letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi
He wrote that he wanted to go to “every village and every street” in the state, stand with party workers and help expand the BJP’s presence across Tamil Nadu. In his post, he tied the move directly to the next general election, saying he wanted to prepare the party for the 2029 Lok Sabha polls.
Speaking to reporters in Delhi later, Murugan said he had written to the Prime Minister expressing his wish to go back to Tamil Nadu to strengthen the party and prepare the ground for 2029.
From Konur village to the Union Council of Ministers
In the letter, Murugan dwelt on his background, describing himself as the son of daily wage labourers with no political family behind him. He said his parents, who worked as labourers and cattle grazers, still live a simple life in Konur village. He said his guiding rule through nearly three decades in the ABVP and the BJP had been “Nation First, Party Next, Self Last”.
Murugan entered the Union government in July 2021. Until June 2024 he held the Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying portfolio alongside Information and Broadcasting, and he now also handles Parliamentary Affairs. Before that, he served as vice-chairperson of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes from 2017 to 2020 and led the BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit as state president.
What happens next
A minister’s resignation takes effect once the President accepts it on the Prime Minister’s advice, and a Rajya Sabha member quits by writing to the Chairman of the House. Reports on Tuesday evening did not say whether the resignation had been accepted or who would take over his portfolios.
The decision takes a sitting Union minister out of Delhi and into full-time organisational work in Tamil Nadu, three years before the next Lok Sabha election. If his Rajya Sabha resignation goes through, the seat he vacates will be filled through a by-election.
