JOIN USSingh sworn in with 19 seniors
Along with Singh, 19 senior leaders, 17 of them from the Congress and one each from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Trinamool Congress (TC), joined the new ministry as Cabinet ministers.
President Pratibha Patil administered the oath of office and secrecy to Singh and 19 others at Rashtrapati Bhavan amid the sour taste left by the deadlocked Congress-DMK power-sharing talks on Thursday. Among the 17 Congress leaders inducted as Cabinet ministers were former Karnataka chief ministers S M Krishna and M Veerappa Moily.
As he took oath, Singh became the first Prime Minister after Jawaharlal Nehru to get a second consecutive opportunity after a full term. Five years ago, on May 22, 2004, Singh had assumed charge as Prime Minister of the first UPA government.
Singh laid stress on experience while choosing his ministers. Of the 19 ministers, 12 were members of the outgoing Cabinet — Pranab Mukherjee, P Chidambaram, A K Antony, Sushil Kumar Shinde, S Jaipal Reddy, Kamal Nath, Vayalar Ravi, Meira Kumar, Murli Deora, Kapil Sibal and Ambika Soni (all Congress) and NCP leader Sharad Pawar.
Among the remaining seven, Ghulam Nabi Azad was a member of the first UPA Cabinet until he was shifted to Jammu and Kashmir as chief minister nearly four years ago. TC leader Mamata Banerjee too has previous experience as she was a Cabinet minister in the NDA government.
However, Krishna and Moily have become members of the Union Cabinet for the first time, though Krishna was briefly a junior minister at the Centre in the early 1980s. But both have vast administrative experience as chief ministers.
Of the remaining three, B K Handique from Assam, and Anand Sharma from Himachal Pradesh were junior ministers in the outgoing UPA government. P C Joshi, the Rajasthan Congress president, is, however, the new face.
The portfolios for the Cabinet ministers would be allocated in “2-3 days”, the Prime Minister told newspersons soon after the swearing-in ceremony. More ministers are likely to be inducted on Tuesday.
It is expected that additional representation to the Congress’ UPA allies would be given in the first expansion of the ministry next week. It is expected that DMK representatives would join the ministry in the expansion. It might be significant that outgoing DMK minister A Raja attended the swearing-in ceremony.
The Congress leadership would also induct the party’s second-rung leaders as also several young faces in the next week's exercise. Many states, including Uttar Pradesh where the party has done exceptionally well, Orissa, Gujarat and Haryana among others are expected to get representation in the process.
Significantly, Arjun Singh, H R Bharadwaj, Sisram Ola and Saifuddin Soz — all senior ministers in the outgoing UPA government — have been left out.
While the announcement of the portfolios was being delayed, it is, however, speculated that Mukherjee will get finance, Chidambaram home, Antony defence, Krishna (or Kamal Nath external affairs, Kapil Sibal for commerce and Moily for law or human resource development, Mamata railways and Pawar agriculture. Krishna was sworn in ahead of Kamal Nath.
The first session of the newly constituted Lok Sabha is expected to begin from June 2, and is likely to continue till June 10.
DH News Service
Heavyweights
* Pranab Mukherjee
* Sharad Pawar
* A K Antony
* P Chidambaram
* S M Krishna
* M Veerappa Moily
* Mamata Banerjee
* Ghulam Nabi Azad
* C P Joshi
* Sushil Kumar Shinde
* S Jaipal Reddy
* Kamal Nath
* Vayalar Ravi
* Meira Kumar
* Murli Deora
* Kapil Sibal
* Ambika Soni
* B K Handique
* Anand Sharma