Eight new faces were inducted into Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s council of ministers Monday — possibly the last reshuffle before the 2014 general elections.
The fresh-inductees included Oscar Fernandes, Sis Ram Ola, Girija Vyas and K.S. Rao.
The ministers of state 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-2 government.
With the new induction, the strength of the council of ministers 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.
–IAns