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- By Parinda News Bureau, January 30, 2006, 09:48 IST
New Delhi: In a long awaited reshuffle and expansion of the Union cabinet, the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in consultation with the Congress President Sonia Gandhi brought back two former Chief Ministers of Maharashtra from cold storage.
While Sushil Kumar Shinde was posted as the governor of Andhra Pradesh, A R Antulay had no party post at the moment. The two, however, were still considered heavy weight in Maharashtra politics. 77-year-old Antulay is the face of the minority and Shinde's link with Maharashtra politics have remained solid even after he made way for Deshmukh. The third heavy weight from Maharashtra to be inducted in the cabinet is Murli Deora.
Mani Shankar Aiyar has been stripped of Petroleum and Murli Deora got this portfolio.
Aiyar is now left with Panchayati Raj but gets Youth Affairs and Sports, held by Sunil Dutt till last summer.
Shinde, who resigned as Andhra Pradesh Governor, gets Power, held by P M Sayeed who died recently while Antulay gets Minority Affairs.
The other inductees into the Cabinet are Congress General Secretary Ambika Soni who gets Tourism and Culture, J&K leader Saifuddin Soz (Water Resources) and JMM leader Shibu Soren who makes a re-entry as Coal Minister.
A total of 22 ministers including 10 as Cabinet Ministers were sworn in by President A P J Abdul Kalam at a ceremony in Rashtrapati Bhavan which was attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Leader of Opposition L K Advani, Cabinet Ministers and a number of other dignitaries.
Kerala got representation in the Cabinet after a long time with the entry of Rajya Sabha member Vayalar Ravi who gets Overseas Indian Affairs portfolio till now held by Oscar Fernandes.
Science Minister Kapil Sibal, Heavy Industries Minister Santosh Mohan Deb and Company Affairs Minister P C Gupta have been elevated to the Cabinet rank. Gupta belongs to RJD.
Prominent among the new persons sworn in as Ministers of State are TNCC President and late G K Moopanar's son G K Vasan with independent charge of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
Pawan Kumar Bansal, who resigned as chairman of the Lok Sabha committee on MPLADS scam following allegations of diversion of his constituency development fund, was made MoS for Finance while Delhi MP Ajay Maken was given Urban Development.
Long time Congress spokesman Anand Sharma has been made MoS External Affairs and Rajya Sabha member from Punjab Ashwani Kumar will be MoS in Industries.
Late NTR's daughter D Purandareshwari is the new MoS in HRD ministry while her colleague from Andhra Pradesh M M Pallamraju gets Defence.
The other new MoS are Jairam Ramesh, who heads the Congress Economic Affairs's cell, T Subbirami Reddy and Dinsha Patel, whose portfolios are yet to be decided. Akhilesh Das is the new MoS (Steel) while Chandrashekhar Sahu becomes MoS Labour.
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