Arjun,Ola out,loyalist Bhardwaj cools his heels

Pranab Mukherjee,Sharad Pawar,A K Antony,P Chidambaram,Ambika Soni,Meira Kumar,Murli Deora,Kapil Sibal,Sushil Kumar Shinde,Kamal Nath,Vayalar Ravi and Jaipal Reddy,already ministers in the outgoing government,were the others who took oath of office. Anand Sharma and B K Handique,Ministers of State in the last government,too joined as Cabinet Ministers.

Six of the 19 are former Chief Ministers — Pawar,Antony,Moily,Azad,Krishna and Shinde.

In the morning,Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi called up all ministerial candidates — the PM spoke first and then handed the phone to Gandhi.

While Mukherjee will be Finance Minister,Antony and Chidambaram will retain Defence and Home respectively,it was reliably learnt. Portfolios of other ministers will be decided over the next “two-three days”.

Sources said that three Ks — Kamal Nath,Kapil Sibal and S M Krishna — were in the running for the crucial External Affairs portfolio. Sibal along with Moily was also in contention for the Human Resource Development charge. Mamata Banerjee is likely to get Railways.

Shinde is tipped to get Power,Ambika Soni is likely for Tourism,Vayalar Ravi for Overseas Affairs,Ghulam Nabi Azad for Parliamentary Affairs,Anand Sharma for Information and Broadcasting,Jaipal Reddy for Urban Development.

Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand,two states where the Congress did extremely well in the election,did not find any representation in the Cabinet today but sources said they would be accommodated during the expansion. Salman Khursheed,sources said,was likely to be inducted.

Ministers of State and MoS with Independent charge,who were left out today in view of the deadlock over the DMK demand for berths,will also be inducted Tuesday. Ajmer MP Sachin Pilot is tipped to be inducted as MoS. NCP MP Agatha Sangma is also set to be inducted as MoS,Rural Development & Development of North East Region. MoS in the Prime Minister’s Office Prithviraj Chavan is likely to be retained in the same slot in the absence of any substitute,said sources.

The swearing-in ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan was attended,among others,by Vice-President Hamid Ansari,UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi,BJP leader L K Advani,former Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat,Rahul Gandhi,Priyanka Vadra,Lalu Prasad Yadav,Ram Vilas Paswan and chiefs of the three Services.