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| 7 new faces in UPA Ministry | | | New Delhi | Apr 6
The much anticipated Union Cabinet reshuffle took place on Sunday. Seven ministers were inducted into the Council of Ministers. While six were inducted as Ministers of State, former Chief of the Election Commission, M S Gill was sworn in as Minister of State with independent charge.
President Pratibha Patil administered the oath of office to Gill at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Gill was followed by V Narayanasamy and Santosh Bagrodia. Jyotiraditya Scindia was among the two young faces inducted into the Ministry on Sunday. Other ministers who were sworn in by the President were young Jitin Prasada, Raghunath Jha and Ramesh Oraon.
Santosh Bagrodia will take over as Minister of State for Coal, while M S Gill will assume independent charge of Sports and Youth Affairs Ministry. Jyotiraditya Scindia will be MoS in IT and Communication Ministry.
Jairam Ramesh has been given the additional charge of Power Ministry and B K Handique will be given independent charge of Mines Ministry.
Prior to the swearing-in ceremony, six Ministers of State resigned from the Union Council of Ministers. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and other cabinet ministers were present at the oath-taking ceremony.
The changes in the Manmohan Singh Ministry, speculated for a long time, has been limited to the Congress with the exception of Jha, who is from RJD.
While Scindia (MP), Prasada (UP), Oraon (Jharkhand) and Jha (Bihar) are from Lok Sabha, the others are from Rajya Sabha. Narayanasamy is from Puducherry and Bagrodia hails from Rajasthan.
Those who resigned from the government ahead of the expansion were Suresh Pachouri (Personnel), Dasari Narayan Rao (Coal), M V Rajasekharan (Planning), T Subbarami Reddy (Mines), Akhilesh Das (Steel) and Manikrao Gavit (Home).
The President has accepted their resignations with immediate effect.
Pachouri, who took over as new chief of Congress in Madhya Pradesh ahead of Assembly polls there later this year, and Rajasekharan resigned on the expiry of their terms in Rajya Sabha.
Ahead of today`s exercise, there was speculation that Sachin Pilot of the Congress, DMK`s Kanimozhi and NCP chief Sharad Pawar`s daughter Supriya Sule would get into the ministry.
There was also talk that Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh would be replaced and brought to Centre but he himself denied such reports.
Mani Shankar Aiyar stripped of Sports and Youth Affairs portfolio.
Vyalar Ravi gets charge of Parliamentary Affairs in addition to Overseas Indians Affairs. |
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