Eight new faces have been inducted into the Union Council of Ministers on Monday, with Sisram Ola and Oscar Fernandes making a re-entry after a gap of four years.

Mr. Ola, along with Girija Vyas and K.S. Rao, have been inducted as Cabinet Ministers.

The Ministers of State are Manikrao Gavit, Santosh Chowdhury, J.D. Seelam and E.M.S. Natchiappan.

Mr. Ola and Mr. Fernandes were Ministers in the UPA-I but did not find a place in the UPA-II government.

While Mr. Fernandes has been made the Road and Highways Minister, Ms. Vyas is the new Housing, Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation Minister.

Mr. Rao is the new Textiles Minister and Mr. Ola has been made Labour and Employment Minister.

Mr. Seelam is the new MoS for Finance and Mr. Nachiappan has been made MoS Commerce and Industry.

Mr. Gavit is the MoS Social Justice and Empowerment and Santosh Chowdhury has been given charge of the Health & Family Welfare Ministry.

With the new inductions, the strength of the Council of Ministers goes up to 77.

The expansion-cum-reshuffle of the Council of Ministers has been necessitated by the exit of Ministers from DMK as well as resignation of Pawan Kumar Bansal, Ashwani Kumar, Ajay Maken and C.P. Joshi. (PTI)