Dr. Manmohan Singh of the Indian National Congress party was sworn in as India’s Prime Minister today, after the general election results of last week. Included in his cabinet were returning ministers Pranab Mukherjee (Foreign Minister), Sharad Pawar (member of alliance party NCP), A K Antony (former Defense Minister) and P Chidambaram (most recently Home Minister).
New entrants in the nineteen member cabinet included S M Krishna, Ms. Mamata Banerjee (of the West Bengal based Trinamool Congress), Ghulam Nabi Azad, Veerappa Moily and C P Joshi. Others are Sushilkumar Shinde, S Jaipal Reddy, Kamal Nath (former Commerce Minister) , Vyalar Ravi, Meira Kumar, Murli Deora, Kapil Sibal, Ms. Ambika Soni, B K Handique, and Anand Sharma are also among those inducted into the Cabinet.
The council of ministers in India is usually larger than 50, including junior ministers. Media reports indicate that the expansion will occur on Tuesday. Congress Party leader, Salman Khurshid and National Conference President Farooq Abdullah will be among about two dozen who may be inducted. Other reports indicate that returning ministers may include Vilas Muttemwar and Mukul Wasnik.
While the congress party had 206 seats of its own in the Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament), its United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition won 262 seats in the 543-member national parliament, just 10 short of the 272 needed for a working majority. The alliance quickly garnered pledges of support from independents and others to take its voting strength to 322.
