Seven Cabinet ministers, including new faces K. Rehman Khan and Chandresh Kumari, and 15 Ministers of State were sworn-in today as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expanded his Council of Ministers.
Five Ministers of State -- Dinsha Patel, M M Pallam Raju, Harish Rawat, Ajay Maken and Ashwani Kumar -- were promoted to Cabinet rank.
Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari and actor-turned- politician Chiranjeevi were brought in as Ministers of State with independent charge, while Shashi Tharoor made a comeback as Minister of State after over two years.
12 new Ministers of State were sworn-in. They are Tariq Anwar (Maharashtra), K Suresh (Kerala), A H Khan Chowdhry, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhry and Deepa Dasmunshi, (West Bengal), S Satyanarayana, K Jayasuyraprakash Reddy, P Balram Naik, and Killi Kriparani (Andhra Pradesh).
Lalchand Kataria (Rajasthan), Ranee Narah (Assam) and Ninong Ering (Arunachal Pradesh) are the others who were sworn-in as MoS