Manmohan Shuffles Ministry, Focus on Economy, Governance

New Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS): Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday carried out a much anticipated shuffle of his ministerial pack by elevating three junior ministers to cabinet rank and bringing in three new ministers of state in an exercise meant to shore up the image of his 19-month-old government buffeted by corruption scandals and charges of non-performance.

However, the changes were restricted largely to his Congress party and did not include any from his allies that form part of his United Progressive Alliance (UPA), other than the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

There were also no changes in his core team - Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Home Minister P. Chidambaram, Defence Minister A.K. Antony and External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna.

No minister was dropped, but some, like Murli Deora (corporate affairs) and M.S. Gill (statistics and programme implementation), were obviously downgraded. Deora and Gill earlier held the petroleum and natural gas and the sports and youth affairs ministries, respectively.

President Pratibha Patil administered the oaths of office and secrecy to the new ministers at the Ashoka Hall in Rastrapati Bhavan, the presidential palace.

Salman Khursheed, Praful Patel and Sripraksh Jaiswal were promoted as cabinet ministers, taking the number of ministers in the cabinet to 34.

In the significant reshuffle, Khursheed got water resources with additional charge of minority affairs. Patel got charge of heavy industries and public enterprises and Jaiswal retained his portfolio but got promoted because of his good work.

The entrusting of coal and water resources portfolios to cabinet rank ministers reflected the importance of such important resources to the national economy.

Vayalar Ravi, the overseas Indian affairs minister, got additional charge of civil aviation, a possibly temporary responsibility, as another round of ministerial changes are expected after the presentation of the annual fiscal budget next month.

Ashwani Kumar (science and technology, earth sciences, planning and parliamentary affairs), K.C. Venugopal and Beni Prasad Verma are the new ministers of state sworn in. While Ashwani Kumar and Beni Prasad Verma have been union ministers before, Venugopal, a lawyer and a first-time MP, has only been a minister in Kerala.

Verma, who got steel, also got independent charge as minister of state, along with Ajay Maken, who is the new sports and youth affairs minister and K.V. Thomas, who got independent charge as consumer affairs, food and public distribution minister of state.

With this, the Manmohan Singh ministry will have 78 ministers - 34 cabinet ministers and 43 ministers of state. This is the first expansion of the UPA II government, battling a public perception that it is mired in corruption and indecisiveness.

The ministerial changes were preceded by several rounds of consultations between Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

The government, inching towards the half-way mark of its five-year term, has been plagued by issues of governance, reflected mainly by its inability to curb rising prices of food and fuel and political corruption that has made even industry leaders write letters seeking the prime minister's "urgent" intervention to check the "governance deficit".

List of Manmohan Singh's 'reshuffled' council of ministers

In the first major revamp of his council of ministers, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday inducted three new ministers of state and promoted three to cabinet rank while reshuffling some portfolios. Here is the list of the changes:

Cabinet Ministers:

1. Praful Patel : Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises

2. Sriprakash Jaiswal : Coal

3. Salman Khursheed : Water Resources and additional charge of Minority Affairs

Minister of State (Independent Charge):

1. Ajay Maken : Youth Affairs and Sports

2. Beni Prasad Verma : Steel

3. K.V. Thomas : Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution

Ministers of State:

1. Ashwani Kumar : Planning and Parliamentary Affairs, Science and Technology, and Earth Sciences

2. K.C. Venugopal : Power

The portfolios of the following ministers have also been changed:

Cabinet Ministers:

1. Sharad Pawar : Agriculture and Food Processing Industries

2. Virbhadra Singh : Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises

3. Vilasrao Deshmukh : Rural Development and additional charge of Panchayati Raj

4. S. Jaipal Reddy : Petroleum and Natural Gas

5. Kamal Nath : Urban Development

6. Vayalar Ravi : Overseas Indian Affairs and additional charge of Civil Aviation

7. Murli Deora : Corporate Affairs

8. Kapil Sibal : Human Resource Development and additional charge of Communications and Information Technology

9. B.K. Handique : Development of North-Eastern Region

10. C.P. Joshi : Road Transport and Highways

11. Kumari Selja : Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and additional charge of Culture

12. Subodh Kant Sahay : Tourism

13. M.S. Gill : Statistics and Programme Implementation

14. Pawan Kumar Bansal : Parliamentary Affairs and additional charge of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences

Minister of State (Independent Charge):

1. Dinsha Patel : Mines

Ministers of State:

1. E. Ahamed : External Affairs

2. Harish Rawat : Agriculture and Food Processing Industries

3. V. Narayanasamy : Parliamentary Affairs and Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and Prime Minister's Office

4. Gurudas Kamat : Home Affairs

5. A. Sai Prathap : Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises

6. Bharatsinh Solanki : Railways

7. Jitin Prasada : Road Transport and Highways

8. Mahadev S. Khandela : Tribal Affairs

9. R.P.N. Singh : Petroleum and Natural Gas and Corporate Affairs

10. Tusharbhai Chaudhary : Road Transport and Highways

11. Arun Yadav : Agriculture and Food Processing Industries

12. Pratik Prakashbapu Patil : Coal

13. Vincent Pala : Water Resources and Minority Affairs