PM picks more ministers; team grows to 78

New Delhi: Former chief ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh, Vir Bhadra Singh and Farooq Abdullah were among the 14 politicians who were named as Cabinet ministers in the second list released on Wednesday.

DMK leaders Dayanidhi Maran, A Raja and M K Azhagiri will join the Manmohan Singh government as Cabinet ministers too. The list of Cabinet ministers also includes Mallikarjun Kharge, Kumari Selja, Subod Kant Sahay, M S Gill, G K Vasan, P K Bansal, Mukul Vasnik and Kantilal Bhuria.

As many as 45 politicians will join the government as Ministers of State. NCP leader Praful Patel and Congress leaders Prithviraj Chauhan, Sriprakash Jaiswal, Salman Khursheed, Dinsha Patel, Jairam Ramesh and Krishna Tirath will be Ministers of State with independent charge.

The 38 other ministers of state are E Ahamed, V. Narayanasamy, Srikant Jena, Mullappally Ramachandran, D. Purandeswari, Panabaka Lakshmi, Ajay Maken, K.H. Muniyappa, Namo Narain Meena, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasad, A. Sai Prathap, Gurudas Kamat, M.M. Pallam Raju, Mahadev Khandela, Harish Rawat, K.V. Thomas, Saugata Ray, Dinesh Trivedi, Sisir Adhikari, Sultan Ahmed, Mukul Roy, Mohan Jatua, S.S. Palanimanickam, D. Napoleon, S. Jagathrakshakan, S. Gandhiselvan, Preneet Kaur, Sachin Pilot, Shashi Tharoor, Bharatsinh Solanki, Tusharbhai Chaudhary, Arun Yadav, Prateek Prakashbapu Patil, R.P.N. Singh, Vincent Pala, Pradeep Jain and Agatha Sangma.

Of these, E. Ahamed is from the Muslim League; the Trinamool Congress is represented by Saugata Ray, Dinesh Trivedi, Sisir Adhikari, Sultan Ahmed, Mukul Roy and Mohan Jatua; the DMK's four-member brigade comprises S S Palanimanickam, D. Napoleon, S Jagathrakshakan, and S Gandhiselvan; the NCP's Agatha Sangma.

The notable omissions in the list of cabinet ministers are H R Bhardwaj, Shivraj Patil, Arjun Singh, Sis Ram Ola and P R Kyndiah.

In the last council of ministers, there were 30 cabinet ministers, including eight allies; ministers of state with independent charge comprised seven from the Congress and one from the NCP; besides, there were 26 Congress leaders and 14 from the various allies amongst the 40 ministers of state.