Agencies
New Delhi, Apr 6:
Former Chief Election Commissioner M S Gill, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Jitin Prasada, both members of the Congress youth brigade, were on Sunday inducted into the Union Council of Ministers from which six Ministers of States were dropped.
Three other Congress MPs--V Narayanasamy, Rameshwar Oraon and Santosh Bagrodia--and RJD MP Raghunath Jha were also sworn in the minor expansion of the Manmohan Singh ministry. 72-year-old Gill, who was elected to Rajya Sabha from Punjab on a Congress ticket, has been made MOS with independent charge. The new ministers were administered the oath of office and secrecy by President Pratibha Patil at Rashtrapati Bhavan at a function attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Cabinet Ministers.
The changes in the ministry, speculated for a long time, has been limited to the Congress with the exception of Jha. While Scindia (Madhya Pradesh), Prasada (UP), Oraon (Jharkhand) and Jha (Bihar) are from Lok Sabha, the others are from Rajya Sabha. Narayanasamy is from Puducherry and Bagrodia hails from Rajasthan.
Those who resigned from the Government ahead of the expansion were Suresh Pachouri (Personnel), Dasari Narayan Rao (Coal), M V Rajasekharan (Planning), T Subbarami Reddy (Mines), Akhilesh Das (Steel) and Manikrao Gavit (Home). The President has accepted their resignations with immediate effect. Pachouri, who took over as new chief of Congress in Madhya Pradesh ahead of assembly polls there later this year, and Rajasekharan resigned on the expiry of their terms in the Rajya Sabha.
Ahead of Sunday's exercise, there was speculation that Sachin Pilot of the Congress, DMK's Kanimozhi and NCP Chief Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule would get into the ministry. There was also talk that Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh would be replaced and brought to Centre but he himself denied such reports. On Maharashtra, Gandhi said the Government is stable.
Rahul declines minister's post
New Delhi: If the words of AICC chairperson Sonia Gandhi are to be believed, her son Rahul Gandhi has refused to accept minister's bearth in the Union cabinet. The UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Sunday said that she wanted Rahul Gandhi in the government, but he refused it because he is busy in reviving the Youth Congress.
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