Manmohan Singh creates history

Dr. Manmohan Singh created history by becoming only the second Prime Minister of India to be sworn in for a second successive five-year term after completing the first one. In doing so, he emulated none other than Jawaharlal Nehru, independent India's first ever Prime Minister. Nehru led the Congress to victory in the 1951, 1957 and 1962 Lok Sabha elections.

Congress veteran Pranab Mukherjee may be named the new Finance Minister, a post he held in the 1980s. Kapil Sibal has been tipped by some media reports to be External Affairs Minister, while P. Chidambaram will likely retain the Home portfolio. The Congress party, which heads the UPA coalition with 206 Lok Sabha seats, will also retain some of the other key ministerial portfolios. Only 15-20 ministers were sworn-in along with Dr. Singh. All the ministers will hold a cabinet rank, although, their portfolios were not announced.

Dr. Singh took oath of office as the country's prime minister along with 19 cabinet members, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said in a statement. Rahul Gandhi was not inducted in the new Union Cabinet. Those who took the oath as cabinet ministers included Mukherjee and Chidambaram. The remaining cabinet members were Sharad Pawar, A.K. Antony, Mamata Banerjee, S.M. Krishna, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Sushil Kumar Shinde, M. Veerappa Moily, S. Jaipal Reddy, Kamal Nath, Vayalar Ravi, Meira Kumar, Murli Deora, Kapil Sibal, Ambika Soni, B.K. Handique, Anand Sharma and C.P. Joshi.

"This will be followed in the next few days by an expansion of the council of ministers, including other cabinet ministers, ministers of state with independent charge as well other ministers of state," the PMO said. "This expansion will give due representation to allied parties."

Meanwhile, the distribution of ministerial portfolios snowballed into a controversy, with the DMK refusing to accept the Congress formula and deciding to stay out of the administration. The DMK said it would offer its 18 MPs only as outside support to the coalition. DMK supremo and Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi and his son and MP from Madurai, M Azhagiri, left for Chennai, probably in protest against Congress turning down its demands. Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad was likely to visit Chennai to hold talks with Karunanidhi in a bid to break the deadlock.

But, notwithstanding the acrimony over ministerial berths, all DMK MPs attended the swearing-in ceremony. The Congress party claimed the support of 274 lawmakers before the DMK exit, two more than needed for a majority in the Lok Sabha. "We have support of 322 parliamentarians and we are not worried about falling short at all," Janardhan Dwivedi, a senior Congress leader, said.