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Advani, Fernandes, Sinha, Jaswant, Joshi retain portfolios

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee allocated portfolios to his jumbo-sized council of ministers late this evening.

Senior ministers Lal Kishenchand Advani, George Fernandes, Yashwant Sinha, Jaswant Singh and Dr Murli Manohar Joshi retain the portfolios - home, defence, finance, external affairs and human resources development, respectively - that they held in the previous government.

But Pramod Mahajan, a member of the Rajya Sabha, has been shifted from information and broadcasting to parliamentary affairs, with additional charge of water resources.

Arun Jaitley, who is not a member of either House of Parliament, replaces Mahajan in the ministry of information and broadcasting with independent charge.

Vajpayee has given Mamata Banerjee railways, Sharad Yadav civil aviation, Ram Vilas Paswan communication, Nitish Kumar surface transport, Ram Jethmalani law, justice and company affairs, and Murasoli Maran commerce and industry.

Jagmohan, the lone elected member of Parliament from Delhi to find a berth in the Cabinet, will look after urban development. Naveen Patnaik will take charge of mines and minerals, and Juel Oram, a tribal BJP politician from Orissa, has been entrusted with the ministry of tribal affairs.

Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Sunderlal Patwa gets rural development. P R Kumaramangalam retains power. Ram Naik gets petroleum and natural gas, hitherto held by V K Ramamurthy from Tamil Nadu, who was defeated in the election.

T R Balu has been given environment and forests and Ananth Kumar, who was civil aviation minister, will now look after culture, youth affairs and sports.

Former Maharashtra chief minister Manohar Joshi of the Shiv Sena has been given charge of heavy industries and public enterprises.

Vasundhararaje Scindia, who was assisting Jaswant Singh in the ministry of external affairs, will now look after small-scale, agro and rural industries. In addition to this, she will assist the prime minister in the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pension, and the departments of atomic energy and space.

Dilip Ray has been given independent charge of steel, hitherto held by Naveen Patnaik.

Maneka Gandhi continues with social justice and empowerment while Uma Bharti will devote her undivided attention to the promotion of tourism.

Unallocated portfolios will be looked after by the prime minister. Dilip Ray and Santosh Gangwar will assist the parliamentary affairs minister in addition to their charges.

Advani, who had been single-handedly looking after the sensitive home ministry, will now be assisted by Vidyasagar Rao and I D Swami.

Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha will have the services of V Dhananjay Kumar and Eknath Vikhe-Patil.

Harin Pathak and Bachi Singh Rawat will be the two ministers of state for defence.

Trinamool Congress politician Ajit Panja will be the minister of state for external affairs.

Dr Joshi will have Sumitra Mahajan and Jaisingh Patil to assist him in the HRD ministry.

Floor co-ordination in both Houses of Parliament has been entrusted to Sriram Chauhan and Faggan Singh Khulaste. Besides, Dilip Ray and Santosh Gangwar will assist Mahajan in managing parliamentary affairs.

Murasoli Maran will have Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah's son Omar and Dr Raman to help him run the commerce and industry ministries.

The railways will have one minister of state in Digvijay Singh of the Samata Party.

UNI

Click here for the full list of ministers with portfolios

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