Write Comment     |     E-Mail To a Friend     |     Facebook     |     Twitter     |     Print

No Minister was dropped but there were major changes in portfolios in the reshuffle of the Union Cabinet on Wednesday which saw S. Jaipal Reddy getting Petroleum, Praful Patel moving to Heavy Industries, Kamal Nath to Urban Development and Murli Deora to Corporate Affairs.

The exercise, described as “minor” by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who promised a “more expansive exercise” after the budget session of Parliament starting next month, saw the elevation of three Ministers of State — Mr. Patel, Shriprakash Jaiswal and Salman Khursheed — to Cabinet rank and induction of three new faces — Beni Prasad Verma, Ashwani Kumar and K.C. Venugopal — as Ministers of State. Mr. Kumar made a re-entry into the government having been a minister in UPA I.

Mr. Verma was inducted as Minister of State with independent charge while Ministers of State Ajay Makhen and K.V. Thomas got promotion when they got Ministries with independent charge.

The change of portfolios adversely affected Sports Minister M.S. Gill who has been moved to Statistics and Programme Implementation, Virbhadra Singh from Steel to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Vilasrao Deshmukh from Heavy Industries to Rural Development and Mr. Deora from Petroleum to Corporate Affairs.

The other Cabinet Ministers whose portfolios were changed were B.K. Handique from whom Mines was taken away leaving him only with Development of Northeastern Region and C.P. Joshi, who was shifted from Panchayati Affairs and Rural Development to Road Transport and Highways.

Kapil Sibal, who was recently given the Telecom portfolio after the exit of A. Raja, retained both the Telecom and the HRD Ministries while Science and Technology and Earth Sciences were taken away from him.

Sharad Pawar, president of the Nationalist Congress Party, which was the only Congress ally to be touched in this reshuffle, lost Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.

Changes were also affected in the Ministries of the Cabinet members including Selja, Subodh Kant Sahay and Pawan Kumar Bansal. Ms. Selja lost Tourism and got Culture in addition to Housing and Urban and Poverty Alleviation, which she held, while Mr. Sahay was shifted from Food Processing Industries to Tourism.

Mr. Bansal retained Parliamentary Affairs and shed Water Resources to Mr. Khursheed, who was shifted from Corporate Affairs. Mr. Bansal got new charge of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences while Mr. Khursheed retained Minority Affairs.

Civil Aviation, held by Mr. Patel, has now gone to Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi as additional charge.