Prime Minister Narendra Modi tonight removed Smriti Irani as the Information and Broadcasting Minister and gave the portfolio to Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore in a minor but significant reshuffle of his cabinet, in which Rail Minister Piyush Goyal was given the additional charge of the Finance Ministry.

Irani, whose nearly one-year tenure in the I and B Ministry was mired in controversies, was replaced by her deputy Rathore who has been made the Minister of State with Independent Charge, according to a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique. The reshuffle comes a day before the Karnataka assembly election results. This is the second time that Irani has been removed from a key ministry as she was earlier shifted out of the HRD Ministry to the relatively low-profile Textile Ministry.