Railway and Law Ministries appear to have become jinxed in recent years.
During the four years of the UPA-II, ministers having these two portfolios have not been able to remain in office for more than two years.
Pawan Kumar Bansal and Ashwani Kumar, who were forced to quit on Friday just within six months of being in office in the wake of controversies surrounding them, were the latest casualties.
Railways has seen five ministers during four years, two of whom -- Dinesh Trivedi and Bansal -- left under unpleasant circumstances.
When UPA-II assumed power in May 2009, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee became the Railway Minister. She resigned two years later to become West Bengal Chief Minister.
Trivedi, her party colleague, succeeded her in Rail Bhavan but he was forced to quit by Banerjee in less than a year after he proposed hike in passenger fares in last year's Railway Budget.
In fact, his exit was so hasty that he was not able to see the passage of the Railway Budget which he presented in Lok Sabha.
His position was taken by Mamata loyalist Mukul Roy but he too remained in the post only for about six months as his party withdrew from the government protesting against allowing FDI in retail.
The portfolio then went to Bansal, who became the first Congress leader in 17 years to get the ministry.
This was because the last Congress minister who was in- charge of Railways was Suresh Kalmadi whose tenure ended in 1996 after the United Front government came to power.
