Cabinet Reshuffle in India: Salman Khurshid got External Affairs Ministry

The Cabinet Reshuffle that took place on 28 October 2012 witnessed reshuffling of 5 ministers along with 17 new faces, which were inducted to take on the charge. All these 22 ministers would take the charge of their new offices, on 29 October 2012. Few of the most important names in this cabinet reshuffle was the lifting of the former Law Minister Salman Khurshid to External Affairs Minister of India, and Ajay Maken, who has been promoted to Cabinet Rank and got the Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation.

The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee appointed and administered the oaths of the office and its secrecy to the newly elected members in the council of ministers following the advice of the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh. The President following the advice of the Prime Minister directed the change of portfolios of different ministers.

There are seven new faces in the list of cabinet minister and they include K. Rahman Khan was given Minority Affairs, Dinsha J. Patel was given Mines, whereas Ajay Maken took the charge of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation, M.M. Pallam Raju took over Human Resource Development, Ashwani Kumar took over the Law & Justice, Harish Rawat got Water Resources, and Chandresh Kumari Katoch became got the portfolio of Culture.

Two new members were inducted in the list of Ministers of State with Independent Charge and they are Manish Tewari for Information & Broadcasting and Dr. K. Chiranjeevi for Tourism.

New faces in the list of Ministers of State to be included were Shashi Tharoor getting Human Resource Development, Kodikunnil Suresh got the charge of Labour & Employment, Tariq Anwar became the incharge of Agriculture & Food Processing Industries, K. J. Surya Prakash Reddy got the Railways and Ranee Narah took over the Tribal Affairs. Few more of the names in this list for Ministers of State as new faces to be inducted includes Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury also got Railways, A.H. Khan Choudhury took over Health & Family Welfare, Sarvey Sathyanarayana would handle the Road Transport & Highways, Shri Ninong Ering would take the charge of Minority Affairs, Deepa Dasmunsi got the Urban Development, Porika Balram Naik took charge Social Justice & Empowerment, Kruparani Killi became Communications & Information Technology and Lalchand Kataria got Defence.

List of total Ministers in different segment:

•    Cabinet Ministers- 17
•    Ministers of State with Independent Charge- 7
•    Minister of State- 20

Portfolios of the newly-elected and reshuffled ministers are mentioned below:

List with portfolio allotted of the Cabinet Ministers:

•    M. Veerappa Moily- Petroleum & Natural Gas
•    S. Jaipal Reddy- Science & Technology and Earth Science
•    Kamal Nath- Urban Development & Parliamentary Affairs
•    Vayalar Ravi- Overseas Indian Affairs
•    Kapil Sibal- Communications & Information Technology
•    C.P. Joshi- Road Transport & Highways
•    Kumari Selja- Social Justice & Empowerment
•    Pawan Kumar Bansal- Railways
•    Salman Khursheed- External Affairs
•    Jairam Ramesh- Rural Development
•    K. Rahman Khan- Minority Affairs
•    Dinsha J. Patel- Mines
•    Ajay Maken- Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation
•    M.M. Pallam Raju- Human Resource Development
•    Ashwani Kumar- Law & Justice
•    Harish Rawat- Water Resources
•    Chandresh Kumari Katoch- Culture

List with portfolio allotted of the Ministers of State with Independent Charge:

•    Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia- Power
•    K.H. Muniappa- Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises
•    Bharatsinh Madhavsinh Solanki- Drinking Water & Sanitation
•    Sachin Pilot- Corporate Affairs
•    Jitendra Singh- Youth Affairs & Sports
•    Manish Tewari- Information & Broadcasting
•    K. Chiranjeevi- Tourism

List with portfolio allotted of the Ministers of State

•    E. Ahamed- External Affairs
•    D. Purandeswari- Commerce & Industry
•    Jitin Prasada- Defence & Human Resource Development
•    S. Jagathrakshakan- New & Renewable Energy
•    R.P.N. Singh- Home
•    K.C. Venugopal- Civil Aviation
•    Rajeev Shukla- Parliamentary Affairs & Planning
•    Shashi Tharoor- Human Resource Development
•    Kodikunnil Suresh- Labour & Employment
•    Tariq Anwar- Agriculture & Food Processing Industries
•    K. J. Surya Prakash Reddy- Railways
•    Ranee Narah- Tribal Affairs
•    Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury- Railways
•    A.H. Khan Choudhury- Health & Family Welfare
•    Sarvey Sathyanarayana- Road Transport & Highways
•    Ninong Ering- Minority Affairs
•    Deepa Dasmunsi- Urban Development
•    Porika Balram Naik- Social Justice & Empowerment
•    Kruparani Killi- Communications & Information Technology
•    Lalchand Kataria- Defence

Important Information

In the Article 74 of the Indian constitution it is mentioned that their shall be a Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister as its head to aid and advise the President for exercising his functions.

It is mentioned under Article 75 of the Indian constitution that the President is the person who can appoint, the Prime Minister and the other ministers shall be appointed by the President following the advice the Prime Minister.

In the 91st Amendment of Indian Constitution, insertion of Article 75 (1 A) took place and it states that total number of Ministers in the list of council of ministers including the Prime Minister shall not exceed 15 percent of the total strength of the members of Lok Sabha (House of People).