Eight new faces were inducted in the council of ministers in the Manmohan Singh government, on Monday.
Sisram Ola and Oscar Fernandes make a comeback after a gap of 4 years. Ola, along with Girija Vyas and Kavuri Sambasiva Rao, were inducted as cabinet ministers.
Ola and Fernandes were ministers in UPA I, but did not find a place in the UPA II government.
The newly inducted minister of states are Manikrao Gavit, Santosh Chowdhury, J D Seelam and E N S Nachiappan.
All the 8 new faces were sworn in on Monday at Rashtrapati Bhavan, with President Pranab Mukherjee administering the oath of office.
This is the second re-shuffle since October, and most probably the last before the general elections in 2014. With the new inductions, the strength of the council of ministers will go up to 77.
The expansion-cum-reshuffle of the council of ministers was necessitated by the exit of ministers from the DMK, as well as by the resignations of Pawan Kumar Bansal, Ashwani Kumar, Ajay Maken and C P Joshi. (INN)