India, Oct. 14 -- When Union minister of state L Murugan resigned from the Cabinet and Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, he did so with an unusually long, five-page emotional letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The letter is as much an account of his trajectory from an ABVP worker in Tamil Nadu, as it is a tribute to the Prime Minister.

Murugan has been minister of state for Information and Broadcasting and for Parliamentary Affairs since 2021. A Dalit leader who led the Tamil Nadu unit in 2020, he said in his letter that he wants to prepare the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the 2029 Lok Sabha elections. He said he hopes to help the Prime Minister win "another term under your leadership, this time with a landslide contribution of seats from...