SITTING, FROM LEFT: Vice President Hamid Ansari, President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pose with newly inducted ministers after a swearing-in ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi yesterday.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday inducted eight veterans into the union council of ministers, evidently with an eye to state assembly elections this year-end, but the exercise was seen as lacklustre with no new or young faces and a preponderance of senior citizens.
With general elections less than a year away, the prime minister evidently played safe and brought in only people with a proven track record in the party.
Of the eight ministers, the youngest is 59 years old and the oldest is Sis Ram Ola, 85.
This is the fourth major reshuffle in UPA-II.
Those inducted as cabinet ministers are seen as Sonia loyalists, contrary to reports that some members of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi’s core team would be included.
Those inducted as cabinet ministers are Sis Ram Ola (Labour), Oscar Fernandes (Road Transport and Highways), Girja Vyas (Housing and Poverty Alleviation) and KS Rao (Textiles). The new ministers of state are Manik Rao Gavit (Social Justice and Empowerment, Santosh Chowdhary (Health), EMS Natchiappan (Commerce and Industry) and JD Seelam (Finance).
Veteran Congressman Mallikarjun Kharge’s portfolio was changed from labour to railways, after CP Joshi stepped down to join the party organisation.
Ola and Vyas are heavyweights from Rajasthan, where elections are slated later this year. There are two faces — Rao and Seelam — from Andhra, where the Congress is hoping to resolve the contentious Telangana statehood issue. Fernandes is from Karnataka, where the Congress came back to power last month.
The reshuffle comes a day after a Congress organisational revamp, which saw the infusion of younger blood into the powerful All India Congress Committee that had the stamp of Rahul Gandhi.
The age of the ministers seemed significant as the reshuffle came on a day when newly-appointed party general secretary Ajay Maken said the Congress was focusing on the demographics of a young India, where more than 60 percent of the population is below 30 years.
Maken, addressing his first press conference, said the AICC revamp on Sunday had resulted in the average age of the office-bearers being 52 years. “Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi have together put together the most youthful team of office-bearers. Rahul is a youth leader, his stamp is clearly visible. The average age of the AICC is 52 years,” he said.
“The party revamp was done keeping the average age of the youth of India,” he said.
The BJP immediately took a dig at the cabinet reshuffle.
“This is a dead reshuffle. This is the way the Congress would want to pay respect to elders,” Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said.
Manmohan Singh had said during November’s reshuffle that it would likely be the last one before the general election, but yesterday’s move was necessitated due to the exit of erstwhile UPA allies DMK and Trinamool Congress, as well as the departure of ministers CP Joshi and Ajay Maken last week to join the party organisation.
Tainted ministers Pawan Kumar Bansal and Ashwani Kumar quit a month ago.
IANS
