UPA inducts old faces in Cabinet, 85-year-old Ola gets Labour Ministry

New Delhi: In perhaps the last reshuffle before the 2014 general elections, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) on Monday inducted new faces into its Cabinet, including 85-year-old Sis Ram Ola, leaving out the young brigade to send out a message that it wants to run the government with a mixture of "youth and experience".

Mallikarjun Kharge was made the Railways Minister and after Saturday's Congress revamp, senior woman leader from election-bound Rajasthan Girija Vyas and Andhra Pradesh leader KS Rao were brought in as Cabinet Ministers in an all-Congress affair.

Three new faces - Santosh Chowdhury, JD Seelam and ENS Nachiappan were made Ministers of State along with veteran Maharashtra leader Manikrao Gavit. With the fresh inductions, the strength of the Union Council of Ministers has gone up to 77.

The oath of office and secrecy to the new ministers was administered by President Pranab Mukherjee at a ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan attended by Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and union ministers among others. 71-year-old Kharge, who missed out in the Chief Ministerial race in Karnataka in May, has been compensated with the heavyweight Railway portfolio after being shifted from Labour and Employment.

Labour has now been given to Ola, the 85-year-old Jat leader from Rajasthan who gets back the same portfolio he had held in the UPA-I. Fernandes, who had also been Labour Minister and Sports and Youth Affairs Minister in UPA-I, got Road and Highways Ministry, succeeding C P Joshi who resigned over the weekend.

Girija Vyas got Housing, Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation, a portfolio held by Ajay Maken who also had quit on Saturday to work for the party. KS Rao (69), a five-time MP from coastal Andhra Pradesh who nearly quit Lok Sabha after being ignored in the Cabinet expansion last year, was given the Textiles portfolio.

List of new ministers:

CABINET MINISTERS

- Sis Ram Ola gets Labour and Employment portfolio

- Oscar Fernandes gets Road and Highways Ministry

-Dr Girija Vyas gets Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Ministry

- Dr Kavuru Sambasiva Rao gets Textiles Ministry

MINISTERS OF STATE

- Dr EM Sudarsana Natchiappan gets Commerce and Industries Ministry

- Among new Ministers of State, Manikrao Gavit gets Social Justice and Empowerment

- Santosh Chowdhury gets Health and Family Welfare

- JD Seelam becomes Ministers of State Finance.

(With Additional Inputs From PTI)