Cabinet reshuffle: Manmohan Singh announces new team

New Delhi: A reshuffle of the Union cabinet on Wednesday saw no major change in the key ministries of finance; home, defense and foreign affairs, a government statement showed. Praful Patel, Sriprakash Jaiswal and Salman Khurshid were elevated as Cabinet ministers.

Petroleum and Surface Transport,  Murli Deora has been shifted from the Oil Ministry to Corporate Affairs; Jaipal Reddy will replace him as Oil Minister. And Kamal Nath has lost the Surface Transport portfolio and, in a surprise move, gets Urban Development.

Ashwani Kumar gets Planning and Parliamentary Affairs and Science and Technology and Earth Sciences while Venugopal gets Power.Ajay Maken and K V Thomas elevated as Ministers of State with independent charge. Beni Prasad Verma will be new induction as MoS Independent Charge.

M S Gill moved from Sports and Youth Affairs Ministry to Statistics and Programme Implementation. Ajay Maken gets MoS Independent of the Sports and Youth Affairs. Virbhadra Singh shifted from Steel to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises while Vilasrao Deshmukh shifted from Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises to Rural Development with additional charge of Panchayati Raj.

The Congress’ Kapil Sibal will stay on as Telecom Minister. He will also retain his Human Resources Development portfolio. He has been relieved of the Science and Technology portfolio.

The portfolios of the following ministers have been changed to:

CABINET MINISTERS:

Sharad Power: Agriculture and Food Processing Industries

Virbhadra Singh : Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises

Vilasrao Deshmukh : Rural Development and additional charge of Panchayati Raj

Jaipal Reddy: Petroleum and Natural Gas

Kamal Nath : Urban Development

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

Murli Deora : Corporate Affairs

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

B.K. Henrique: Development of North-Eastern Region

C.P. Joshi: Road Transport and Highways

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

Subodh Kant Sahay: Tourism

M.S. Gill : Statistics and Programme Implementation

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

MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE):

Dinsha Patel: Mines

MINISTERS OF STATE:

E. Ahamed: External Affairs

Harish Rewet: Agriculture and Food Processing Industries

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

Gurudas Kamet: Home Affairs

A. Sai Prathap : Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises

Bharatsinh Solanki: Railways

Jitin Prasada : Road Transport and Highways

Mahadev S Khandela : Tribal Affairs

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

Tusharbhai Chaudhary: Road Transport and Highways

Shri Arun Yadav : Agriculture and Food Processing Industries

Shri Pratik Prakashbapu Patil: Coal

Shri Vincent Pala: Water Resources and Minority Affairs