PM reshuffles Cabinet; Pranab Mukherjee gets Foreign Ministry

NEW DELHI: A K Antony was on Tuesday night appointed the new Defence Minister in place of Pranab Mukherjee, who moved to the External Affairs portfolio in a Cabinet expansion and reshuffle which also saw the reinduction of a controversial RJD MP Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav as a Minister of State.

Ending months of speculation, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh filled the foreign office slot vacated by K Natwar Singh in the wake of the Iraqi oil scam nearly a year ago by expectedly moving Mukherjee from Defence to a position which he held in the Narasimha Rao cabinet.

However, the surprise of the expansion was the appointment of Antony, former Kerala Chief Minister with a clean reputation, to the prestigious Defence portfolio. The other key portofolios of Home and Finance were not not touched.

M H Ambareesh was appointed Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting while Yadav was appointed to his previous portfolio of Minister of State for Water Resources.

Oscar Fernandes, Minister without portfolio, got independent charge of Labour and Employment, which had fallen vacant following the resignation of K Chandrasekhar Rao of the Telengana Rashtra Samiti. Chandra Sekhar Sahu, MoS in Labour, was shifted to Rural Development.

A Rashtapati Bhavan communique said after the swearing in ceremony that Mani Shankar Aiyar would get Development of North Eastern Region in addition to Panchayati Raj, Youth Affairs and Sports.

With Tuesday's induction, the strength of the Union Council of Ministers went upto 80. Of them 34 are of the rank of Cabinet Ministers, seven Ministers of State with independent charge and 39 MoS.

Antony would be the second minister from Kerala after Vayalar Ravi, Minister for Overseas Affairs, both of whom are from Rajya Sabha as the party drew a blank in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.

Called 'Mr Clean', Antony has not not suffered politically despite his party's political setbacks in his home state Kerala.

Yadav, who quit under controversial circumstances in November last year, is the sole non-Congress entrant in Tuesday's exercise. A confidante of Lalu Prasad, Yadav quit as Minister of State for Water Resources when a non-bailable warrant was issued against him for allegedly aiding the escape of his brother from police custody during the assembly elections in Bihar.

Ambareesh, a third time MP from Mandya in Karnataka, makes a maiden entry into the Union Council of Ministers. He belongs to the dominant Vokkaliga community which has no representation at the Centre now.

The brief ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhawan was attended by the Prime Minister, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Cabinet Ministers among others.

Following is the list of Union Council of Ministers after Tuesday's expansion and reshuffle:

Cabinet Ministers

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh : Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Planning, Atomic Energy, Space

Pranab Mukherjee     : External Affairs

A K Antony           : Defence

Arjun Singh          : Human Resource Development

Sharad Pawar         : Agriculture, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution

Lalu Prasad          : Railways

Shivraj Patil        : Home

Ram Vilas Paswan     : Chemicals & Fertilizers and Steel

S Jaipal Reddy         : Urban Development

P Chidambaram        : Finance

Mahavir Prasad       : Small Scale Industries, Agro & Rural Industries

P R Kyndiah          : Tribal Affairs

T R Baalu            : Shipping; Road Transport & Highways

Shankersinh Vaghela  : Textiles

Kamal Nath           : Commerce & Industry

H R Bhardwaj         : Law & Justice. 

Raghuvansh Prasad Singh: Rural Development

Priyaranjan Dashmunsi  : Information & Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs

Mani Shankar Aiyar     : Development of North Eastern Region, Panchayati Raj, Youth Affairs and Sports

Meira Kumar            : Social Justice & Empowerment

A Raja                 : Environment & Forests

Dayanidhi Maran        : Communication & Information Technology

Anbumani Ramdoss       : Health & Family Welfare

Sis Ram Ola            : Mines

Murli Deora            : Petroleum and Natural Gas

Sushil Kumar Shinde    : Power

A R Antulay            : Minority Affairs

Vayalar Ravi           : Overseas Indian Affairs

Ambika Soni            : Tourism and Culture

Saifuddin Soz          : Water Resources

Shibu Soren            : Coal

Santosh Mohan Dev      : Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises

P C Gupta              : Company Affairs

Kapil Sibal            : Science & Technology and Ocean Development

Ministers of State (Independent Charge)

Renuka Choudhury       : Women and Child Development

Subodh Kant Sahay      : Food Processing Industries

Vilas Muttemwar        : Non-Conventional Energy Sources

Kumari Selja           : Urban Employment & Poverty Alleviation.

Praful Patel       : Civil Aviation

G K Vasan          : Statistics and Programme Implementation

Oscar Fernandes    : Labour & Employment

Ministers of State

E Ahamed           : External Affairs

Suresh Pachauri    : Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions and Parliamentary Affairs

B K Handique       : Chemical and Fertilisers; Parliamentary Affairs

Panabaka Lakshmi   : Health & Family Welfare

Dasari Narayan Rao : Coal & Mines

Shaqeel Ahmed      : Communications & Information Technology

Rao Inderjit Singh : Defence

Naranbhai Rathwa   : Railways

K H Muniappa       : Road Transport & Highways

M V Rajashekharan  : Planning

Kantilal Bhuria    : Agriculture, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution

Manik Rao Gavit    : Home Affairs

Sri Prakash Jaiswal: Home Affairs

Prithviraj Chavan  : Prime Minister's Office

Taslimuddin        : Agriculture, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.

Suryakanta Patil         : Rural Development & Parliamentary Affairs

Md. Ali Ashraf Fatmi     : Human Resource Development

R Velu                   : Railways

S S Palanimanikkam       : Finance

S Regupathy              : Home Affairs

K Venkatapathy           : Law & Justice

Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan  : Social Justice & Empowerment

E V K Elangovan          : Textiles

Kanti Singh              : Heavy Industries

Namo Narayan Meena       : Environment & Forests

Akhilesh Singh           : Agriculture, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution

Pawan Kumar Bansal       : Finance

Anand Sharma             : External Affairs

Ajay Maken               : Urban Development

M M Pallam Raju          : Defence

Akhilesh Das             : Steel

Chandrasekhar Sahu       : Rural Development

Ashwani Kumar            : Industries

D Purandareshwari        : Human Resource Development

Dinshaw Patel            : Petroleum & Natural Gas

T Subbirami Reddy        : Mines

Jairam Ramesh            : Commerce

Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav: Water Resources

M H Ambareesh            : Information and Broadcasting