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North gains in numbers, if not in importance New Delhi, January 19 Ashwani Kumar, Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab, has staged a comeback, while senior ministers Virbhadra Singh from Himachal Pradesh and Manohar Singh Gill from Punjab have been allocated “politically lighter” ministries in the reshuffle. Gill, it seems, has been made to pay for the Commonwealth Games muddle. The delay in constructing stadiums and the confusion in the run-up to the Games had forced the Prime Minister to intervene. Gill, a former Chief Election Commissioner, will now handle the portfolio of Statistics and Programme Implementation. Virbhadra, one of the longest serving Congressmen who was MoS in Jawaharlal Nehru’s time, will now handle Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. This is seen as a climb down from the economically vital Steel Ministry. He was reportedly set to get the post of a Governor, but has stayed on largely due to the fact that he is the senior-most Rajput leader. His removal might not have gone down well with the community spread across Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and parts of Punjab, Haryana and J&K besides MP and Uttar Pradesh. Over the past few days, there had been a talk in political circles about a Punjab MP being accommodated in the Cabinet. The name of the suave Manish Tewari from Ludhiana was doing the rounds, till the Prime Minister reportedly reposed his faith in Ashwani Kumar, who was MoS in the UPA-I, but had failed to get the nod when the UPA returned to power in May 2009. He has been appointed MoS Planning; Parliamentary Affairs; Science and Technology and Earth Sciences. Ashwani Kumar hails from Gurdaspur and is a noted lawyer.With his induction, there are four ministers in the council from Punjab.
UP gets lion’s share as per Rahul plan Lucknow, January 19 The state with 22 MPs now has two Cabinet Ministers, one Minister of State with Independent charge and three Deputy Ministers. Added to this is another MP P L Punia, the Chairperson of the National SC ST Commission with Cabinet rank. The ministers from UP promoted to the Union Cabinet, Salman Khursheed and Sriprakash Jaiswal, have been given charge of water resources and minority affairs and coal, respectively. Gonda MP Beni Prasad Verma, a new entrant to UPA II, has been given Independent charge of Steel. There has been an exchange of portfolios between RPN Singh and Jitin Prasada, with Singh getting Petroleum & Natural Gas, along with Corporate Affairs and Prasada the crucial ministry of Roads. Another Deputy Minister who remained untouched by today’s reshuffle is Pradeep Jain ‘Aditya’ holding rural development. Between them, these ministers would handle huge central funds for the development of infrastructure in the state, including the flagship MNREGA programme under the rural development ministry. With There is the likelihood of more centrally assisted projects being given to the state. Addressing the concluding session of the two-day coordination committee meeting AICC General Secretary Rahul Gandhi had yesterday asked Congressmen to aggressively monitor development being undertaken under central schemes and highlight cases of corruption. Punia, a retired IAS officer who was principal secretary to CM Mayawati twice, is already causing discomfiture to the government by closely monitoring cases of discrimination and harassment against Dalits under the present regime. Nothing for AP Congress MPs Hyderabad: Despite contributing highest number of MPs to the UPA kitty, Andhra Pradesh could not find a berth in the Cabinet reshuffle carried out by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today. While ministerial aspirants were clearly disappointed, the growing regional divide among Congress leaders appears to have prompted the Central leadership to keep the state out of the present round of Cabinet expansion. The raging Telangana statehood issue has created a gulf among rulingparty leaders, so much so that mutual trading of charges and public spat has become the order of the day. The increasing friction between Telangana leaders and theirRayalaseema and coastal Andhra counterparts has put the high commandin a tight spot.
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