THE “availability of talent” and “other considerations” were the key reasons why it took Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Congress leadership to finalise the council of ministers. In the end, Mr Singh described his 78-member council, as a “mixture of experience and energy”. Referring to the delay of nearly a week, Mr Singh said there was a need to be thorough. “Picking a Cabinet is a thorough exercise,” he said.
Elucidating, Mr Singh said there were several considerations while making the choice, which included the “availability of talent”. Discussing the reasons why there was no representation from Uttar Pradesh in his 38-member Cabinet, Mr Singh referred to “availability of talent” and “other considerations”. Several members of the previous Cabinet have been dropped. Sidestepping queries about the exclusion of senior members like HR Bhardwaj and Arjun Singh, the prime minister said: “There were other avenues of public service.” Indicating that the efforts would be made to accommodate senior party leaders who had been left out in his council of ministers.
Meanwhile, Congress president Sonia Gandhi reiterated the prime minister’s stress on performance. Virtually putting the newly-inducted party ministers on notice, she suggested that they either perform or perish. “Some of those who are inside can make way for others,” Ms Gandhi said. At the meeting of the Congress parliamentary party, Mr Singh had told Congress MPs that people expected a more efficient government and that “business as usual” will not do.
The following is the complete list of the Union Council of Ministers and their portfolios: MANMOHAN SINGH: Prime Minister,general administration, personnel, atomic energy CABINET MINISTERS Pranab Mukherjee: Finance AK Antony: Defence P Chidambaram: Home SM Krishna: External affairs Kapil Sibal: HRD Anand Sharma: Commerce & industry Mamata Banerjee: Railways Kamal Nath: Roads GK Vasan: Shipping Sushilkumar Shinde: Power Murli Deora: Petroleum A Raja: Telecom, IT Vilasrao Deskmukh: Heavy industries, PE Virbhadra Singh:Steel Dayanadhi Maran: Textiles M Veerappa Moily: Law Ambika Soni: I&B Sharad Pawar: Agriculture, consumer affairs, food & PDS Kumari Selja: Tourism, housing Pawan Kumar Bansal:Parliamentary affairs Ghulam Nabi Azad: Health S Jaipal Reddy: Urban development Vayalar Ravi: NRI affairs Meira Kumar: Water resources BK Handique: Mines, northeast development CP Joshi:Rural development, panchayati raj Farooq Abdullah: New/renewable energy Mallikarjun Kharge: Labour MS Gill: Sports, Youth affairs Subodh Kant Sahay: Food processing industries Mukul Wasnik:Social justice Kantilal Bhuria: Tribal affairs MK Azhagiri: Chemicals & fertilisers MINISTERS OF STATE WITH INDEPENDENT CHARGE Praful Patel: Civil aviation Prithviraj Chavan: S&T & also MoS in PMO, parliamentary affairs Sriprakash Jaiswal: Coal, statistics and programme implementation Salman Khurshid: Corporate affairs, minority affairs Dinsha Patel: Micro, small & medium enterprises Krishna Tirath: Women and child development Jairam Ramesh: Environment and forests MINISTERS OF STATE Shashi Tharoor: External affairs Preneet Kaur: External affairs Ajay Maken: Home Mullappally Ramachandran: Home NN Meena: Finance SS Palanimanickam: Finance MM Pallam Raju:Defence Jyotiraditya Scindia: Commerce & industry Gurudas Kamath: Telecom, IT Sachin Pilot: Telecom, IT E Ahmed: Railways K H Muniyappa: Railways Jitin Prasada: Petroleum D Puran Deswari: HRD Srikanth Jena: Chemicals & fertilisers Saugata Ray: Urban development V Narayanasamy: Planning, parliamentary affairs Panabaka Lakshmi: Textiles A Sai Prathap: Steel Harish Rawat: Labour KV Thomas: Agriculture, PDS Bharatsinh Solanki: Power Mahadev Khandela: Roads RPN Singh: Roads Dinesh Trivedi: Health S Gandhiselvan: Health Sisir Adhikari: Rural development Pradeep Jain: Rural development Agatha Sangma: Rural development Sultan Ahmed: Tourism Mohan Jatua: I&B Dr S Jagathrakshakan: I&B Mukul Roy: Shipping D Napoleon:Social justice Tusharbhai Chaudhary: Tribal affairs Arun Yadav: Sports, youth affairs Prateek Patil: Heavy industry & PE Vincent Pala: Water resources
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