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| PM rejigs cabinet: 3 promoted, many portfolios jigged | | Deora stripped of Petroleum ministry, Reddy takes over | | Early Times Report
NEW DELHI, Jan 19: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's much awaited Cabinet reshuffle on Wednesday remained mostly a cosmetic exercise, with the changes confined only to the Congress team, while key allies DMK and Trinamool Congress had no participation. No minister was dropped.
The expansion of the Council of Ministers and swearing-in of the new incumbents took place in a short ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. In a surprise development, S. Jaipal Reddy was made the petroleum and natural gas minister while Praful Patel, Salman Khursheed and Sriprakash Jaiswal have been elevated to cabinet rank.
Sweeping changes to portfolios - a record 37 - but nobody was dropped in today's Cabinet reshuffle - a point stressed by a sniggering BJP soon after the announcements. After the speculation about whether there would be dramatic changes, what the Prime Minister seems to have implemented is a game of musical chairs.
Beni Prasad Verma, K.C. Venugopal and Ashwani Kumar are new entrants in the Council of Ministers. Verma will be MoS (Independent charge) in Steel Ministry. Kumar will be MoS in Planning and Parliamentary Affairs and Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, while Venugopal will be MoS in Power Ministry.
Jaiswal has been given Coal Ministry and Salman Khursheed has got Water Resources along with the additional charge of Ministry of Minority Affairs. Virbhadra Singh has been shifted from Steel to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, while Vilasrao Deshmukh has been shifted from Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises to Rural Development with additional charge of Panchayati Raj.
CP Joshi has been shifted from Rural Development and Panchayati Raj to Road Transport and Highways. Kumari Selja has been shifted from Tourism and gets additional charge of Culture, retains Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation.
Murli Deora has been shifted from Petroleum to Corporate Affairs Ministry. Sharad Pawar has shed the Consumer Affairs and Food and Civil Supplies portfolio, retaining the Agriculture Ministry. He also gets Food Processing Industries. Two ministers whose names figured in the CWG irregularities, Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy and Sports Minister M.S. Gill have been shifted. Reddy has got a plum portfolio of Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry. M.S. Gill has been moved from Sports and Youth Affairs Ministry to Statistics and Programme Implementation.
Ajay Maken, who will be a new entrant as MoS (Independent charge), will take over the Sports and Youth Affairs portfolio. Kapil Sibal retains Telecom and HRD, losing the Science and Technology portfolio.
In addition to Maken, K.V. Thomas has been made MoS (Independent carge). Thomas retains Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution in the elevated position. B.K. Handique has been divested of the Mines portfolio, while retaining the Development of North Eastern Region portfolio.
Dinsha Patel, MoS Railways, has been shifted to Mines and promoted as MoS (Independent charge). C.P. Joshi has been shifted from the Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Ministry to the Road Transport and Highways Ministry. Kumari Selja has divested of the Tourism portfolio but gets additional charge of Culture, while retaining the Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation portfolio.
Subodh Kant Sahay has been shifted from the Food Processing Industries Ministry to Tourism. Pawan Kumar Bansal has retained the Parliamentary Affairs portfolio, while losing the Water Resources Ministry, which has been given to Khurshid.
Changes have also been made in the portfolios of various Ministers of State. E. Ahamed has been shifted from the Railways to External Affairs while Harish Rawat has been moved from Labour to Agriculture and Food Processing Industries.
V. Narayansami has been made MoS in the Prime Minister's Office, Department of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension. He retains the Parliamentary Affairs while losing Statistics and Programme Implementation.
Gurudas Kamat has been shifted from the Department of Telecom to Home Affairs in the capacity of MoS. A. Sai Pratap has been made MoS in the Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Ministry. Bharatsinh Solanki has been moved to Railways as MoS while Jitin Prasada has been made MoS in the Road Transport and Highways Ministry. Madhav S. Khandela has been moved to Tribal Affairs. R.P.N. Singh will be the MoS in Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry, while Tusharbhai Chaudhary will be MoS in the Road Transport and Highways Ministry.
This is the first Cabinet reshuffle in the UPA-II after it retained power in May 2009. The reshuffle is happening with Congress trying to address an image crisis created by a series of corruption case. Second phase of Cabinet changes will happen after the Budget session concludes in May. By that time, results of the assembly elections in West Bengal, Kerala, Assam and Tamil Nadu will have come giving the party clarity on its equations with allies. |
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