Eight new ministers to be sworn in Cabinet

Eight new faces will be inducted in the Council of Ministers today, with Sisram Ola and Oscar Fernandes making a re-entry after a gap of four years. Ola, along with Girija Vyas and K S Rao, are to be inducted as Cabinet Ministers, sources said.

The Ministers of State to be inducted are Manikrao Gavit, Santosh Chowdhury, J D Seelam, E M S Natchiappan. Ola and Fernandes were ministers in the UPA-I but did not find a place in the UPA-II government.

With the new inductions, the strength of the Council of Ministers will go up to 77.

The expansion-cum-reshuffle of the Council of Ministers has been necessitated by the exit of Ministers from DMK as well as resignation of Pawan Kumar Bansal, Ashwani Kumar, Ajay Maken and C P Joshi.