In a much expected Cabinet reshuffle, the Congress decided Praful Patel, Sriprakash Jaiswal and Salman Khurshid to be elevated as Cabinet Ministers among other change around in the Union Cabinet Wednesday in New Delhi.

Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy shifted to Petroleum and Natural Gas. Kapil Sibal retains Telecom and HRD.

Ajay Maken and K V Thomas elevated as Ministers of State with Independent Charge. Beni Prasad Verma is new induction as MoS Independent Charge.

Ashwani Kumar and K C Venugopal are new Ministers of State.

Kumar gets Planning and Parliamentary Affairs and Science and Technology and Earth Sciences while Venugopal gets Power.

M S Gill moved from Sports and Youth Affairs Ministry to Statistics and Programme Implementation. Ajay Maken gets MoS Independent of the Sports and Youth Affairs.

Sharad Pawar sheds Consumer Affairs and Food and Civil Supplies, retains Agriculture and gets Food Processing Industries.

Virbhadra Singh shifted from Steel to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises while Vilasrao Deshmukh shifted from Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises to Rural Development with additional charge of Panchayati Raj.

Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi gets additional charge of Civil Aviation in place of Praful Patel who gets Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises.

B K Handique divested of Mines portfolio, retains Development of North Eastern Region.

C P Joshi shifted from Rural Development and Panchayati Raj to Road Transport and Highways. Kumari Selja loses Tourism but gets additional charge of Culture, retains Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation.

Subodh Kant Sahay shifted from Food Processing Industries to Tourism. Pawan Kumar Bansal retains Parliamentary Affairs, loses Water Resources which has been given to Salman Khurshid.

Jaiswal elevated in the same ministry of Coal as Cabinet Minister.

Beni Prasad Verma is MoS Independent Charge in Steel Ministry while K V Thomas retains Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution in the elevated position of MoS Independent Charge.

Dinsha Patel, MoS Railways, shifted to Mines and promoted as MoS Independent Charge.

Changes have also been made in the portfolios of various Ministers of State. E Ahamed shifted from Railways to External Affairs while Harish Rawat from Labour to Agriculture and Food Processing Industries.

V Narayansami made MoS in the PMO, Department of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension. He retains Parliamentary Affairs while losing Statistics and Programme Implementation.

Gurudas Kamat shifted from Department of Telecom to Home Affairs in the capacity of MoS. A Sai Pratap gets Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises.

Bharatsinh Solanki gets Railways as MoS while Jitin Prasada gets Road Transport and Highways. Madhav S Khandela moved to Tribal Affairs.

R P N Singh will be MoS in Petroleum and Natural Gas and Corporate Affairs while Tusharbhai Chaudhary will be MoS Road Transport and Highways.