Prime Minister expands his council of ministers, inducts 59

Eleven days after it convincingly emerged victorious at the hustings, the Congress-led UPA finally has a council of ministers in place. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday announced the much-awaited expansion to a full team of 78 members, inducting among others three former chief ministers-Vilasrao Deshmukh, Virbhadra Singh and Farooq Abdullah-and new entrants Mallikarjun Kharge and MK Alagiri at Cabinet rank.

Besides seniority in the party, it is evident that experience and capability played a large part in deciding the 33 Cabinet ministers that make up the Prime Minister’s core team. As expected, the DMK has three Cabinet berths: A Raja, who is likely to get IT & telecom; Dayanidhi Maran, tipped to get textiles; and MK Alagiri, who may get chemicals & fertilisers. NC leader Farooq Abdullah, who was piqued at being left out during the first ministerial announcements last Friday, is being tipped for the tourism portfolio.

Portfolios for the new ministers are scheduled to be announced on Thursday.

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