Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi, May 27: After three days of intense negotiations, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's new coalition government took final shape Wednesday with 78 ministers including 33 in the cabinet and with the Congress party accounting for three quarters of the three-tier ministry.
The selection of ministers -- a blend of youth and experience, first-time winners and veterans -- showed the touch of an assertive Manmohan Singh who was clear who he wanted in the government and who should be kept out. Congress president Sonia Gandhi gave him her full backing.
Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi finally did not make it -- on his own choice, disappointing many in the Congress who wanted to see his stamp in the government too.
With the average age of the ministers put at 57, Agatha Sangma, daughter of former Lok Sabha Speaker P.A. Sangma, is the youngest at 28. The oldest is External affairs minister S.M. Krishna, 77, one of 19 cabinet ministers who took oath May 22 and one of the six seniors who have got their portfolios.
The new government's 78-strong Council of Ministers makes place for 19 allies of the second United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government - seven each from the DMK and the Trinamool Congress, three from the NCP and one each from the Muslim League and the National Conference. The outgoing government also had 78 ministers, with 23 allies.
Former Chief Ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh, Virbhadra Singh and Farooq Abdullah will be inducted into the Union Cabinet, when the Council of Ministers will be expanded to take in 59 more ministers including new entrants Mallikarjun Kharge and M K Alagiri.
Other Cabinet ministers to be sworn in are DMK's Dayanidhi Maran and A Raja, Congress MPs M S Gill, Kumari Selja, Subodh Kant Sahay, G K Vasan, Pawan Kumar Bansal, Kantilal Bhuria (all elevated from the level of Ministers of State) and Congress leader Mukul Wasnik, who was Minister of State in the Narasimha Rao government.
Virbhadra Singh, a former Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, has been elected from Mandi while Abdullah from Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir. Deshmukh, a former Maharashtra Chief Minister, is not a member of either House of Parliament.
Ending suspense 11 days after the Lok Sabha results, a PMO press release giving the names of the new ministers said the Prime Minister has recommended to President Pratibha Patil for their inclusion in the ministry.
Those being inducted as Ministers of State with independent charge are Praful Patel (NCP), Prithviraj Chavan, Sriprakash Jaiswal, Salman Khursheed, Dinsha Patel, Jairam Ramesh and Krishna Tirath (all Congress).
Prominent among the new ministers to be sworn in tomorrow are Shashi Tharoor, a former UN diplomat who won from Thiruvananthapuram, Sachin Pilot and Praneet Kaur, wife of former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, and Agatha Sangma, daughter of former Lok Sabha Speaker P A Sangma.
Tomorrow's expansion will also see induction of six Trinamool Congress MPs, four from DMK and one from Muslim League.
Praful Patel retains his status while Chavan, Jaiswal, Dinsha Patel and Ramesh have been promoted to hold Independent charge.
Prominent Ministers of the earlier government who have been dropped include Arjun Singh, H R Bhardwaj, Sis Ram Ola and Saifuddin Soz (all Congress) and T R Baalu (DMK).
Ministers of State who did not find a place in the new government are Ashwini Kumar, Rao Inderjit Singh and Santosh Bagrodia (all Congress).
Of the 14 new Cabinet ministers, Kharge, a senior leader from Karnataka, Selja and Wasnik belong to Scheduled Caste while Bhuria belongs to Scheduled Tribe. Krishna Tirath, a Congress member from Delhi who makes her ministerial debut, belongs to Scheduled Caste.
Deshmukh, who belongs to dominant Maratha caste, had to quit as Chief Minister in the aftermath of terror attack in Mumbai in November last year.
The other Ministers of State who would be sworn in are E Ahamed (Muslim League), V Narayanaswamy, Namo Narain Meena, Srikant Jena, Mullapally Ramachandran, A Sai Prathap, Harish Rawat, D Purandeswari, Panabaka Lakshmi, Ajay Maken, Gurudas Kamat, K H Muniyappa, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasada, M M Pallam Raju, Mahadev Khandela, and K V Thomas (all Congress).
Other Congress leaders to make it to the Council of Ministers are Bharatsinh Solanki, Tusharbhai Chaudhary, Arun Yadav, Prateek Prakashbapu Patil, R P N Singh, Vincent Pala and Pradeep Jain.
The TMC members to be sworn in are Saugata Ray, Dinesh Trivedi, Sisir Adhikari, Sultan Ahmed, Mukul Roy and Mohan Jatua.
Ministers of State from DMK will be S S Palanimackam, who retains his place, actor D Napolean, S Jagathrakshakan and S Gandhiselvan.
Of the 59 to be inducted tomorrow, 42 belong to Congress, taking the total number of ministers from the party to 60, including the Prime Minister.
Ministers to be sworn in tomorrow will include seven of DMK, six of TMC, two of NCP and one each of National Conference and Muslim League.
Out of 42 from Congress, 10 will be Cabinet ministers, six with Independent charge and 26 Ministers of State. In all, Congress will have 28 Cabinet Ministers, including the Prime Minister.
Surprisingly, there is no representative in the Cabinet from Uttar Pradesh where Congress saw a substantial revival in the Lok Sabha elections.
Bureau Report
First Published: Wednesday, May 27, 2009, 16:08