Cabinet Reshuffle in India

In Its first cabinet reshuffle, since it came to power for the second time in 2009, the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government in India on 19 January 2011,  expanded the Council of ministers to induct 3 new ministers namely Beni Prasad Verma, KC Venugopal and Ashwani Kumar  as Ministers of State. As per the Cabinet Reshuffle in India, Beni Prasad Verma was given steel as independent charge while Ashwani Kumar was allotted Planning, Parliamentary Affairs, Science and Technology and Earth Sciences. KC Venugopal was made minister of State of Power. Praful Patel, Salman Khursheed and Shriprakash Jaiswal were elevated to Cabinet rank with Praful Patel getting Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises while Salman Khursheed got the portfolio of Water Resources and Minority Affairs.  Shriprakash Jaiswal retained the Coal portfolio. Ashwani Kumar is Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab and was also the former additional Solicitor General of India. Beni Prasad Verma, the Lok Sabha MP from Congress party, represents Gonda constituency of Uttar Pradesh. He had also served as the Union Communications Minister in the Former Prime Minister Deve Gowda’s cabinet from 1996 to 1998. KC Venugopal is an MP (Lok Sabha) from Alapuzha, Kerala. He belongs to Nair community in Kerala. The three new Ministers of State and 3 newly elevated Cabinet ministers were administered the oath of office and secrecy by the President Pratibha Patil at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The most important cabinet reshuffle in India took in the form of Urban Development Minister S. Jaipal Reddy being shifted to the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry while Murli Deora was moved to Corporate Affairs Ministry.  The top four cabinet rank ministries, Home, Finance, External Affairs and Defence were not shuffled. Sharad Pawar got the portfolio of Food Processing while the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs department was taken away from him. Vayalar Ravi got the Civil Aviation portfolio. Kamal Nath was shifted from the Ministry of surface Transport to Urban development. MS Gill was shifted to Statistics and Programme Implementation from ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and this ministry was given to Ajay Maken (Independent Charge). Dinsha Patel got Mines ministry (Independent Charge) and KV Thomas was given the ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution (Independent Charge).

After the Cabinet Reshuffle in India, the total strength of Council of Ministers is 78, including the Prime Minister. Among them the number of Cabinet Ministers is 35, including the Prime Minister, while Ministers of State with Independent charge are numbered at 6 and the Ministers of State are 37.

Newly Inducted Ministers of State in the Council of Ministers

Important Information
Article 74 of the Indian constitution states that there shall be a Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister at the head to aid and advise the President in the exercise of his functions.

Article 75 of the Indian constitution says that the Prime Minister shall be appointed by the President and the other ministers shall be appointed by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister.

And Article 75 (1A)(Inserted through the 91st amendment of the Indian Constitution) states that the total number of Ministers, including the Prime Minister, in the council of minister shall not exceed fifteen percent of the total numbers of the House of the People (Lok Sabha).