Indian Premier Alters His Cabinet

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee added six members to his Cabinet on Saturday, including one of India’s most popular female politicians, just before two other ministers resigned to protest a hike in oil prices.

Mamata Banerjee, the federal minister for railways, announced her resignation in the eastern city of Calcutta along with her Trinamul Congress party colleague Ajit Kumar Panja, the junior foreign affairs minister, United News of India reported.

Banerjee was protesting the government’s decision Friday to increase prices of subsidized diesel, gasoline, kerosene and other oil products to make up for lost revenue from the rise in global prices.

Shortly before Banerjee announced her decision, President Kocheril Raman Narayanan administered the oath of office in New Delhi to Sushma Swaraj, a former federal minister and one of India’s most well-known female politicians, M. Venkaiah Naidu, a former spokesman of Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata Party, and four other first-time ministers.