AK Antony stays in De-fence and Sharad Pawar Agriculture Food, Civil Supplies, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, portfolios they had handled in the previous UPA Gov-ernment.
Singh, who had taken 19 Ministers in his new Cabi-net, had told reporters at the Rashtrapati Bhawan yester-day that portfolio distribu- tion would take two-three days.
Thangso Baite (standing left), Dr T Meinya (3rd frm right) and Gaikhangam (right) with Sonia Gandhi
However, surprisingly the limited allocation of por-tfolios was announced by the Rashtrapati Bhawan today on the advice of the Prime Minister, who preferred to get down to business and distributed Ministries on which there are apparently no differences.
Portfolios for Ministers including Kamal Nath, Kapil Sibal, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Jaipal Reddy, Anand Sharma and new entrants like Veerappa Moily and CP Joshi are yet to be announced.
These Ministers may get their portfolios once the likely expansion of the Union Council of Ministers takes place on Tuesday as expected. So far only six portfolios have been distributed.
DMK chief M Karunanidhi today issued a statement welcoming the Prime Minister's statement on two of his party leaders—TR Baalu and A Raja—and there are signs that the party may accept the Congress offer of portfolios by Tuesday. The party may get three portfolios of Cabinet rank.
PTI
