Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday named 38 new ministers, including 14 of the cabinet rank, as he brought key allies into the government after his resounding general election victory. No portfolios had yet been allotted to the new ministers. Singh named three lawmakers from the southern DMK party and one from the National Conference party in his cabinet, boosting the stability of the coalition. The DMK had refused to join the government after differences with Singh's Congress party over ministerial posts and had offered its 18 lawmakers as outside support to the coalition in parliament. Manmohan Singh is to head a 79-member council of ministers, including 33 cabinet ministers and 45 ministers of state. The outgoing government had 78 ministers, just one less than the present Cabinet. While 19 cabinet ministers had been sworn in last week Friday, 14 more will take oath Thursday morning along with 45 ministers of state, seven of whom will hold independent charge. Former chief ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh, Virbhadra Singh and Farooq Abdullah will be inducted into the Union Cabinet on Thursday when the Union Council of Ministers will be expanded to take in 59 more ministers, including new entrants Mallikarjun Kharge and M K Alagiri. Other Cabinet ministers to be sworn in are DMK's Dayanidhi Maran and A Raja, Congress MPs M S Gill, Kumari Selja, Subodh Kant Sahay, G K Vasan, Pawan Kumar Bansal, Kantilal Bhuria (all elevated from the level of Ministers of State) and Congress leader Mukul Wasnik, who was Minister of State in the P V Narasimha Rao government. With Thursday's expansion, the total strength of the Council of Ministers will go up to 79 including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. On Friday, Singh and 19 Cabinet Ministers were sworn in. Virbhadra Singh, a former CM of Himachal Pradesh, has been elected from Mandi while Abdullah from Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir. Deshmukh, a former Maharashtra CM, is not a member of either House of Parliament. Ending suspense 11 days after the Lok Sabha results, a PMO press release giving the names of the new ministers said the Prime Minister has recommended to President Pratibha Patil for their inclusion in the ministry. Cabinet ministers Pranab Mukherjee (Finance), Sharad Pawar (Agriculture, Food & Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs & Public Distribution), A. K. Antony (Defense), P. Chidambaram (Home Affairs), Mamata Banerjee (Railways), S. M. Krishna (External Affairs). Portfolios yet to be announced for Ghulam Nabi Azad, Sushilkumar Shinde, M. Veerappa Moily, S. Jaipal Reddy, Kamal Nath, Vayalar Ravi, Meira Kumar, Murli Deora, Kapil Sibal, Ambika Soni, B. K. Handique, Anand Sharma, C. P. Joshi To be sworn in on Thrusday: Virbhadra Singh, Vilasrao Deshmukh, Farooq Abdullah, Dayanidhi Maran, A Raja, Mallikarjun Kharge, Kumari Selja, Subodh Kant Sahay, M S Gill, G K Vasan, Pawan Kumar Bansal, Mukul Wasnik, Kantilal Bhuria, M K Azhagiri Ministers of State E. Ahamed, V. Narayanasamy, Srikant Jena, Mullappally Ramachandran, D. Purandeswari, Panabaka Lakshmi, Ajay Maken, K.H. Muniyappa, Namo Narain Meena, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasad, A. Sai Prathap, Gurudas Kamat, M.M. Pallam Raju, Mahadev Khandela, Harish Rawat, K.V. Thomas, Saugata Ray, Dinesh Trivedi, Sisir Adhikari, Sultan Ahmed, Mukul Roy, Mohan Jatua, S.S. Palanimanickam, D. Napoleon, S. Jagathrakshakan, S. Gandhiselvan, Preneet Kaur, Sachin Pilot, Shashi Tharoor, Bharatsinh Solanki, Tusharbhai Chaudhary, Arun Yadav, Prateek Prakashbapu Patil, R.P.N. Singh, Vincent Pala, Pradeep Jain and Agatha Sangma. Independent charge Praful Patel (NCP), Prithviraj Chavan, Sriprakash Jaiswal, Salman Khursheed, Dinsha Patel, Jairam Ramesh and Krishna Tirath (all Congress).
