Yet another change in the Union Council of ministers

There seems to be no end to re-allocation of portfolios even after Sunday's major Cabinet reshuffle with S Jagathrakshakan of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Friday being given the portfolio of minister of state for commerce and industry.

The shifting of Jagathrakshakan comes five days after he was moved to new and renewable energy on Sunday from information and broadcasting. He had kept away from the new charge of new and renewable energy in the last four days.

D Purandeshwari is the other new minister of state in the ministry of commerce and industry.

On October 29, immediately after the swearing-in ceremony, the Rashtrapati Bhavan communique had listed Jitin Prasada as minister of state for defence and human resource development.

But by night, he was stripped of his charge in the defence ministry and made just minister of state human resource management.

Though there was no official reason for this change, sources attributed it to confusion over the name with Jitendra Singh, another MP from Alwar in Rajasthan, considered close to Rahul Gandhi, also being deployed in the defence ministry.

Jitendra Singh now has the distinction of being minister of state with independent charge of sports and youth affairs along with MoS status in defence ministry.

In between there was another change with Lalchand Kataria, a first time MP from Rajasthan, who was sulking over allocation of subjects as MoS in defence ministry, was accommodated in Rural Development Ministry on Tuesday. This came after he met the prime minister and sought a change.