Minister George Kurian Resigns As Bjp Skips Him For Rajya Sabha Term
Indian Express
Veteran BJP leader George Kurian today resigned as a Union Minister after his six-year term in the Rajya Sabha expired and the party did not renominate him to the Upper House of Parliament.
The Rashtrapati Bhavan said in a statement that President Droupadi Murmu has accepted Kurian’s resignation under clause (2) of Article 75 of the Constitution on the advice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In the 2016 Kerala polls, Kurian unsuccessfully contested against then Chief Minister and Congress candidate Oommen Chandy in Puthuppally. He had served as BJP veteran O Rajagopal’s officer on special duty when he was Union minister in the Vajpayee government from 1999 to 2004.
According to sources in the BJP, Kurian was not informed beforehand that he would not be renominated to the Rajya Sabha this year. So, he was in for a surprise when the list of 11 candidates was released on June 4. The Kerala leader has ended up facing a fate similar to former Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who had to resign a day before his Rajya Sabha term ended because the party did not renominate him.
Kurian was a Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh. This time, the BJP nominated Tarun Chugh and Rajneesh Agrawal to the Upper House from the heartland state.