Indian PM set to lead 78-member Council of Ministers
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is set to lead a 78-member council of
Ministers, including 33 Cabinet Ministers and 45 Ministers of State, in
his second term as head of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)
government in India. The outgoing government also had 78 ministers.
While 19 Cabinet Ministers had been sworn in last Friday, 14 more
will take oath on Thursday morning along with 45 Ministers of State,
seven of whom will hold independent charge.
Former Chief Ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh, Virbhadra Singh and Farooq
Abdullah will be inducted into the Union Cabinet on Thursday when the
Union Council of Ministers will be expanded to take in 59 more ministers
including new entrants Mallikarjun Kharge and M K Alagiri.
Other Cabinet ministers to be sworn in are DMK's Dayanidhi Maran and
A Raja, Congress MPs M S Gill, Kumari Selja, Subodh Kant Sahay, G K
Vasan, Pawan Kumar Bansal, Kantilal Bhuria (all elevated from the level
of Ministers of State) and Congress leader Mukul Wasnik, who was
Minister of State in the P V Narasimha Rao government. With Today's
expansion, the total strength of the Council of Ministers will go up to
79 including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Last Friday, Singh and 19
Cabinet Ministers were sworn in.
Virbhadra Singh, a former CM of Himachal Pradesh, has been elected
from Mandi while Abdullah from Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir. Deshmukh,
a former Maharashtra CM, is not a member of either House of Parliament.
Ending suspense 11 days after the Lok Sabha results, a PMO press
release giving the names of the new ministers said the Prime Minister
has recommended to President Pratibha Patil for their inclusion in the
ministry.
Cabinet ministers : Pranab Mukherjee (Finance), Sharad Pawar
(Agriculture, Food and Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs & Public
Distribution), A. K. Antony (Defence), P. Chidambaram (Home Affairs),
Mamata Banerjee (Railways), S. M. Krishna (External Affairs).
Portfolios yet to be announced for Ghulam Nabi Azad, Sushilkumar
Shinde, M. Veerappa Moily, S. Jaipal Reddy, Kamal Nath, Vayalar Ravi,
Meira Kumar, Murli Deora, Kapil Sibal, Ambika Soni, B. K. Handique,
Anand Sharma, C. P. Joshi
To be sworn in Virbhadra Singh, Vilasrao Deshmukh, Farooq Abdullah,
Dayanidhi Maran, A Raja, Mallikarjun Kharge, Kumari Selja, Subodh Kant
Sahay, M S Gill, G K Vasan, Pawan Kumar Bansal, Mukul Wasnik, Kantilal
Bhuria, M K Azhagiri
NEW DELHI, IANS
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