Pawar and Patel to retain their portfolios in new govt

NEW DELHI: NCP Chief Sharad Pawar and his party colleague Praful Patel are expected to retain their Food and Agriculture and Civil Aviation ministries respectively in the new UPA government being sworn in tomorrow.

UPA sources said that NCP MP Agatha Sangma, daughter of former Lok Sabha Speaker P A Sangma, will be the third minister from the party.

She will be a Minister of State and is likely to be given Rural Development and Department for Development of North-East Region (DoNER).

In the previous government, NCP's Minister of State Suryakanta Patil lost the recent Lok Sabha elections.