PM, Sonia Gandhi finalise list of ministers ahead of cabinet expansion

New Delhi, May 27 (ANI): Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi met here today to finalise the list of ministers ahead of the cabinet expansion.

Fifty-nine ministers will take oath in the second round of cabinet expansion on Thursday.r. Singh has recommended several names to the President for inclusion in his Council of Ministers.

The names doing the rounds are that of 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 and M K Azhagiri, who have been recommended for cabinet rank.

The names of Praful Patel, Prithviraj Chavan, Sriprakash Jaiswal, Salman Khursheed, Dinsha Patel, Jairam Ramesh, Krishna Tirath have been recommended for Ministers of State with Independent Charge.

The names of E Ahamed, V Narayanasamy, Srikant Jena, Mullappally Ramachandran, D Purandeswari, Panabaka Lakshmi, Ajay Maken, K H ,Muniyappa, Namo Narain Meena, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasada, A Sai Prathap, Gurudas Kamat, M M Pallam Raju, Mahadev Khandela, Harish Rawat, K V Thomas, Saugata Ray, Dinesh Trivedi, Shishir 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 Prakash Patil, R P N Singh, Vincent Pala, Pradeep Jain and Agatha Sangma have been recommended for Ministers of State.

In the first round of swearing-in on Friday, only 19 ministers were inducted along with the Prime Minister. Portfolios have been allocated to only six ministers. (ANI)