Kharge gets rail, eight inducted as ministers
18 Jun 2013 5:34 AM IST
What can be seen as the last reshuffle in the UPA II government, eight more Congress leaders on Monday were inducted into the union council of ministers.
While Mallikarjun Kharge was made the railways minister, party veterans Sis Ram Ola and Oscar Fernandes made a comeback into the cabinet.
The two others accommodated in the cabinet are Girija Vyas, the senior woman leader from poll-bound Rajasthan, and KS Rao from Andhra Pradesh. The four leaders inducted as ministers for state are – Santosh Chowdhury, a Lok Sabha MP from Punjab, JD Seelam from Andhra Pradesh, ENS Nachiappan from Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra leader Manikrao Gavit.
71-year-old Kharge, who missed out in the chief ministerial race in Karnataka last month, has been compensated with the heavyweight railway portfolio after being shifted from labour and employment. Labour has now been given to Ola, the 86-year-old Jat leader from Rajasthan who gets back the same portfolio he had held in the UPA-I.
Rajya Sabha MP, Fernandes, who had also been labour and sports and youth affairs minister in UPA-I, has been given roads and highways, succeeding CP Joshi who resigned over the weekend. Former National Commission for Women chairperson and MP from Chittorgarh, Girija Vyas got housing, urban development and poverty alleviation, a portfolio held by Ajay Maken who also had quit on Saturday to work for the party.
KS Rao , a five-time MP from coastal Andhra Pradesh who nearly quit Lok Sabha after being ignored in the Cabinet expansion last year, has been given the textiles portfolio.
With the fresh inductions, the strength of the council of ministers has gone up to 77. The expansion-cum-reshuffle was necessitated with the exit of ministers from DMK as well as resignation of Pawan Bansal, Ashwani Kumar, Ajay Maken and CP Joshi.
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