Union Minister Babul Supriyo, who quit the cabinet on Wednesday ahead of a mega reshuffle, said he is "extremely happy" that he left the stint "without a spot of corruption on me".

However, this was not his initial reaction. Earlier in the day, he posted on social media, "I have been asked to resign and I have."

"I thank Prime Minister for giving me the privilege to serve my country as a Member of his Council of Ministers, he posted on his Facebook account.

Later, the BJP MP from Bengal deleted the post and replaced it with a new one.

"Yes, when there is smoke there must be a fire somewhere. Not being able to take phone calls of my friends in the media who care for me hence let me spell it out myself... Yes, I have resigned from the Council Of Ministers (As I had framed it earlier, 'Asked to resign' may not be the right way to put it)," he said.

"I thank Hon'ble Prime Minister for giving me the privilege to serve my country as a Member of his Council of Ministers. I am extremely happy that I go today without a spot of corruption on me, having served my constituency with all my might and having enjoyed their confidence when Asansol voted me back as their MP once again, with triple the margin in 2019 again," the BJP MP said.

His announcement of quitting as a Minister of State came hours before a list of 43 new names in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet was made public. Some of the big exits include Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.