TNI Bureau: More shocker waited for the people of this country and Congress cadres this morning, as the Congress made last-minute changes to the list of Ministerial hopefuls and ignored Rahul Gandhi’s youth brigade entirely. Even young leaders such as Meenakshi Natarajan, Pradeep Majhi and Manickam Tagore were left out despite the hype created over them in the last couple of days.
Five Ministers of State were elevated to Cabinet rank, while Chandresh Kumari Katoch and K Rahman Khan took the oath as the new Cabinet Ministers. Congress Spokesperson Manish Tewari and filmstar K Chiranjeevi were sworn-in as the Ministers of State (Independent Charge). 13 others were sworn-in as the MoS.
Former External Affairs (Mos) Minister Shashi Tharoor made a comeback to Manmohan Singh’s team as part of the last minute change. Tariq Anwar from the NCP also got the nod. He replaced Agatha Sangma. Suresh Kodikunnil, Surya Prakash Reddy, Rani Narah, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, AH Khan Chowdhury, S Satyanarayana, Ninong Ering, Deepa Dasmunsi, Porika Balram Naik, Dr. K Kruparani and Lalchand Kataria joined the Cabinet as MoS.
The Congress Party made the Cabinet ‘old wine in a new bottle’ and completely ignored the youth by giving importance to old guards. Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal got the lion’s share in the cabinet reshuffle, which is considered as the last one before 2014 polls. Six MPs from Andhra Pradesh were inducted, while three from West Bengal got the final nod.
Support Independent Journalism? Keep us live.
Here’s the Complete List:
Cabinet Ministers: K Rahman Khan, Dinshaw Patel, Ajay Maken, Pallam Raju, Ashwani Kumar, Harish Rawat, Chandresh Kumari Katoch.
MoS (Independent Charge): Manish Tewari, K Chiranjeevi.
MoS: Shashi Tharoor, Suresh Kodikunnil, Tariq Anwar, Jayasurya P Reddy, Rani Narah, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury, Sarve Satyanarayana, Ninong Ering, Deepa Dasmunsi, Porika Balram Naik, Dr. K Kruparani, Lalchand Kataria.