Major reshuffle: three new ministers, three promoted to cabinet rank

Three new cabinet ministers, all three elevated from minister of state rank, and three new ministers of state were on Wednesday inducted in the 19-month-old United Progressive Alliance (UPA) II government as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh began an exercise to shore up the image of his ministry buffeted by corruption scandals and charges of non-performance.

President Pratibha Patil administered the oaths of office and secrecy to the new ministers at the Ashoka Hall in Rastrapati Bhavan. Salman Khursheed, Praful Patel and Sriprakash Jaiswal have been promoted as cabinet ministers.

Ashwani Kumar, KC Venugopal and Beni Prasad Berma are the new ministers of state sworn in.

No minister has been dropped from the cabinet.

In the large-scale reshuffle, Khursheed gets water resources with additional charge of minority affairs. Patel gets charge of heavy industries and public enterprises and Jaiswal retains his portfolio but got promoted because of his good work.

Vayalar Ravi, the overseas Indian affairs minister, gets additional charge of aviation, a possibly temporary responsibility, as another round of ministerial changes are expected after the presentation of the fiscal budget next month.

With this, the Manmohan Singh ministry will have 78 ministers - 34 cabinet ministers and 43 ministers of state

This is the first reshuffle of the UPA II government.

All the three new ministers are from the Congress. The allies will possibly get representation in the second round.

New council of ministers of the Manmohan Singh governmentu00a0
Cabinet Ministers:
1. Praful Patel: Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises
2. Sriprakash Jaiswal: Coal
3. Salman Khursheed: Water Resources and additional charge of Minority Affairs

Minister of State (Independent Charge):
1. Ajay Maken: Youth Affairs and Sports
2. Beni Prasad Berma: Steel
3. KV Thomas: Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution

Ministers of State:
1. Ashwani Kumar: Planning and Parliamentary Affairs, Science and Technology, and Earth Sciences
2. KC Venugopal: Power

The portfolios of the following ministers may also be changed as indicated below:
Cabinet Ministers:
1. Sharad Pawar: Agriculture and Food Processing Industries
2. Virbhadra Singh: Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
3. Vilasrao Deshmukh: Rural Development and additional charge of Panchayati Raj
4. S Jaipal Reddy: Petroleum and Natural Gas
5. Kamal Nath: Urban Development
6. Vayalar Ravi: Overseas Indian Affairs and additional charge of Civil Aviation
7. Murli Deora: Corporate Affairs
8. Kapil Sibal: Human Resource Development and additional charge of Communications and Information Technology
9. BK Handique: Development of North-Eastern Region
10. CP Joshi: Road Transport and Highways
11. Kumari Selja: Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and additional charge of Culture
12. Subodh Kant Sahay: Tourism
13. MS Gill: Statistics and Programme Implementation
14. Pawan Kumar Bansal: Parliamentary Affairs and additional charge of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences

Minister of State (Independent Charge):
1. Dinsha Patel: Mines

Ministers of State:
1. E Ahamed: External Affairs
2. Harish Rawat: Agriculture and Food Processing Industries
3. V Narayanasamy: Parliamentary Affairs and Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and Prime Minister's Office
4. Gurudas Kamat: Home Affairs
5. A Sai Prathap: Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises
6. Bharatsinh Solanki: Railways
7. Jitin Prasad: Road Transport and Highways
8. Mahadev S Khandela: Tribal Affairs
9. RPN Singh: Petroleum and Natural Gas and Corporate Affairs
10. Tusharbhai Chaudhary: Road Transport and Highways
11. Arun Yadav: Agriculture and Food Processing Industries
12. Pratik Prakashbapu Patil: Coal
13. Vincent Pala: Water Resources and Minority Affairs