George Kurian Resigns as Union Minister of State With Immediate Effect as BJP Declines to Renominate Him to Rajya Sabha
President Droupadi Murmu accepted the resignation on June 23, 2026, under Article 75(2) of the Constitution, ending a nearly two-year ministerial stint for the only Christian community member in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's third cabinet.
George Kurian resigned as Union Minister of State on Tuesday, June 23, 2026, one day after his Rajya Sabha term expired bringing to an end his tenure as the sole representative of India's Christian community in the Modi government.
The official confirmation
Rashtrapati Bhavan issued a formal communiqué confirming the acceptance of his resignation: "The President of India, as advised by the Prime Minister, has accepted the resignation of Shri George Kurian from the Union Council of Ministers, with immediate effect, under clause (2) of Article 75 of the Constitution."
Kurian held two portfolios as Minister of State Minority Affairs, and Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying. His resignation takes immediate effect.
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Why Kurian resigned: the Rajya Sabha arithmetic
Kurian's resignation is a direct consequence of the BJP's decision not to renominate him in the recent Rajya Sabha elections. His Rajya Sabha tenure ended on June 21, 2026 and under the Indian Constitution, a minister must be a member of either House of Parliament within six months of being appointed. With his parliamentary seat gone and no renomination forthcoming, resignation was constitutionally required.
Kurian had entered Parliament in August 2024, when he was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh in a bypoll, filling the seat vacated by Jyotiraditya Scindia after Scindia was elected to the Lok Sabha. Since Kurian was elected only for the remainder of Scindia's term, his tenure in the Upper House ended in June 2026. His name did not figure in the BJP's list of candidates for the latest Rajya Sabha elections, according to BusinessToday.
Who is George Kurian
Born in 1960 in Kottayam, Kerala, Kurian, now 65, has been associated with the BJP since the party's formation in 1980 making him a founding-era member. He is a practising advocate in the Supreme Court of India and previously served as vice-chairperson of the National Commission for Minorities before his ministerial appointment.
According to The Week, Kurian is a member of Kerala's Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, one of the state's largest Christian communities. He has held several party positions over the decades including state general secretary, national secretary of the Bharatiya Yuva Morcha, and member of the party's national executive. He was also a familiar face on television debates and was frequently called upon to translate speeches of PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah into Malayalam during their visits to Kerala.
He was inducted into the Modi government on June 9, 2024, despite not being a member of Parliament at the time a constitutionally permissible arrangement for a maximum of six months and was subsequently elected to the Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh to meet the constitutional requirement for continuing as a minister.
In the 2016 Kerala Assembly elections, Kurian had contested from the Puthuppally constituency but lost to then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, according to India TV News.
The BJP's Kerala calculus
According to The Week, Kurian's non-renomination to the Rajya Sabha is reportedly linked to the BJP's performance in the Kerala Assembly elections and broader organisational recalibration. No official explanation for the BJP's decision not to renominate him has been provided by the party.
Kurian was widely described as probably the only minister in the Union government belonging to the Christian community. His departure leaves that community without direct ministerial representation in the Modi cabinet. Whether a replacement will be named or his portfolios reassigned has not been officially confirmed.
The unique angle worth noting: Kurian's exit is not the result of political controversy, resignation on principle, or cabinet reshuffle it is the outcome of a parliamentary arithmetic decision made by the BJP before his term ended. The BJP chose not to renominate him, which made his ministerial continuation constitutionally impossible. That sequence a party effectively ending a minister's tenure by declining to renominate rather than by asking them to resign is a quieter and less visible mechanism of cabinet management, and one that leaves India's Christian community without a single minister in the Union Cabinet for the first time since Kurian's induction in June 2024.
