UPA ministry expanded
New Delhi, May 29 : The Union Council of Ministers was today expanded with the induction of 59 ministers including three former chief ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh, Farooq Abdullah and Virbhadra Singh at the Cabinet level.
In all, 14 cabinet ministers, including DMK nominees M K Alagiri, Dayanidhi Maran and A Raja, and Congress' Mallikarjun Kharge were sworn in by President Pratibha Patil, six days after Prime Minister and 19 others took oath in the first instalment.
New Delhi, May 29 : The Union Council of Ministers was today expanded with the induction of 59 ministers including three former chief ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh, Farooq Abdullah and Virbhadra Singh at the Cabinet level.
In all, 14 cabinet ministers, including DMK nominees M K Alagiri, Dayanidhi Maran and A Raja, and Congress' Mallikarjun Kharge were sworn in by President Pratibha Patil, six days after Prime Minister and 19 others took oath in the first instalment.
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Seven Ministers of State with Independent Charge, including Praful Patel of NCP, Prithviraj Chavan, Salman Khursheed and Jairam Ramesh and 38 Ministers of State were also sworn in at a ceremony in the Rashtrapati Bhawan attended among others by Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
With today's induction, the strength of the Union Council of Ministers goes up to 79, including the Prime Minister, the same as the previous UPA government after the exit of Shivraj Patil.
M S Gill, Selja, Subodhkant Sahay, G K Vasan, Pawan Kumar Bansal, Kantilal Bhuria were the other cabinet ministers inducted today, all from Congress who have been elevated from the status of Ministers of State.
Mukul Wasnik, an MoS in the P V Narasimha Rao government, has been brought in as a Cabinet Minister.