Ajay Maken, Pallam Raju, Rehman Khan get cabinet berth, Scindia & Sachin Pilot left out

NEW DELHI: In what is being seen as an attempt for an ‘image makeover’ by the UPA-II government ahead of the 2014 general assembly elections, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday undertook a drastic overhaul of his ministry. In total 22 ministers were sworn-in.

K Rehman Khan, Dinshaw Patel, Ajay Maken, Pallam Raju, Ashwani Kumar, Harish Rawat and Chandresh Kumari have been sworn-in as Cabinet ministers at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Of the seven new ministers sworn in with Cabinet rank, only two are new faces. The rest, including Ajay Maken and MM Pallam Raju, have been elevated from minister of state rank.

Speaking after the swearing-in ceremony, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that he welcomed the new team and dismissed speculations of early elections.

When asked about Rahul Gandhi, the Prime Minister said that he would have been happy to include him in his team.

Thirteen Ministers of State (MoS) including Shashi Tharoor, Tariq Anwar, K Suresh, K Jayasuyraprakash Reddy, A H Khan Chowdhry and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhry were also sworn in. Ranee Narah, S Satyanarayana, Ninong Ering and Deepa Dasmunshi were also sworn-in as MoS.

Manish Tiwari has been given independent charge of his portfolio. A total of 22 ministers were sworn in today at the Rashrapati Bhavan.

The decks for reshuffle were cleared on Friday after SM Krishna resigned as the foreign minister. While Ambika Soni and Mukul Wasnik quit the government and are set to move into the organisation, prime minister extracted the resignation of "tainted" tourism minister Subodh Kant Sahai. The other ministers who resigned on Saturday were Mahadeo Singh Khandela, Vincent Pala and Agatha Sangma.

New list of ministers

Cabinet:

1- K Rahman Khan

2- Dinshaw Patel

3- Ajay Maken

4- Pallam Raju

5- Ashwini Kumar

6- Harish Rawat

7- Chandresh Kumari Katoch

MOS: Independent Charge

1- Manish Tewari

2- K Chiranjeevi

MOS:

1 - Shashi Tharoor

2- Kodi Kunil Suresh

3- Tariq Anwar

4- K Jayasurya Prakash Reddy

5- Rani Nara

6- Adhir Ranjan Chowdhry

7- A H Khan Chowdhry

8- S Satyanarayana

9- Ninong Ering

10- Deepa Dasmunshi

11 - P Balram Naik,

12 - Killi Kriparani and

13 - Lalchand Kataria