Modi Reallocates Ministerial Portfolios: Piyush Goyal To Be Finance Minister Till Jaitley Returns

In a significant reshuffle of ministerial portfolios today, Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal was given additional charge of the finance ministry till Arun Jaitley recovers from a successful kidney transplant.

The portfolio reshuffle comes a day before the results of the key Karnataka assembly elections are announced.

Jaitley, 65, today underwent a successful kidney transplant at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. “Both the donor and the recipient are stable and recovering well,” a senior AIIMS official said. The finance minister had been undergoing dialysis for the last one month, and mostly working from a “controlled environment at home”.

In September 2014, he underwent a bariatric surgery to treat weight gain because of a long-standing diabetic condition. The surgery was first performed at Max Hospital, but he had to be later shifted to AIIMS because of complications. He had a heart surgery several years ago.