Manmohan Singh government gets 8 new faces

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday shuffled his council of ministers by inducting eight new ministers.

The exercise was aimed at filling vacancies created after two key allies, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Trinamool Congress, quit the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA).

Ajay Maken and C.P. Joshi of the Congress party also quit the ministry over the weekend to work for the party while Pawan Kumar Bansal and Ashwani Kumar were forced to quit last month under controversial circumstances.

Among the new ministers, Sisram Ola, Oscar Fernandes, Girija Vyas and K.S. Rao have been appointed cabinet ministers while Manikrao Gavit, Santosh Chowdhury, E.M.S. Natchiyappana and Jesudasu Seelam have become junior ministers.

President Pranab Mukherjee administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new ministers at a formal ceremony on Monday evening in the presence of Prime Minister Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

Besides, the portfolio of cabinet minister Mallikarjun Kharge has been changed. He becomes the new railways minister, the seventh person to hold the post since 2009 when the UPA formed the government for the second consecutive time.

The exercise to fill the vacancies had a political stamp on it and was done with an eye on the upcoming general elections which are barely 10 months away.

Among the eight new ministers, two each belong to Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh which are due to elect their new legislative assemblies soon.

The surprise appointment was Ola, 84, who will be cabinet minister for labour and employment. Ola had been previously dropped from the Singh government on health grounds.

However, he has now been inducted as a minister ostensibly to appease the powerful Jat community of Rajasthan.

Likewise, Vyas appears to have been made a minister to ensure the upper caste Brahmins of Rajasthan do not feel left out due to C.P. Joshi’s resignation and his subsequent appointment as one of the national general secretaries of the Congress party.

Both the Jat and Brahmin vote banks are crucial in the Congress party’s bid to retain power in the state when it goes to polls in November this year.

Both Rao and Seelam, cabinet and junior ministers respectively, belong to Andhra Pradesh, which has been in turmoil over the demand for a separate Telangana state.

Chowdhury comes in place of Ashwani Kumar, who had to quit as law minister last month after an adverse remark of the Supreme Court, as both belong to Punjab.

Fernandes was removed as an office-bearer of the Congress party last week and has now been made a cabinet minister for the first time. He is considered close to the family of Sonia Gandhi but was not seen as a leader dynamic enough to work under Sonia’s son Rahul Gandhi.

The total strength of the Manmohan Singh government has now gone up to 77.

The exercise has come as a dampener for some of the younger ministers who were hoping to be elevated to the cabinet rank since the Congress party under Rahul Gandhi is trying hard to woo the youth to win a third successive term next year.