New Delhi:
Rejecting suggestions that Uttar Pradesh has been given inadequate representation in the Cabinet, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi said that factors like talent have played a crucial role in deciding on the composition of Council of Ministers.
Singh said his new Council of Ministers is a "mixture of experience and youthful energy".
"There are several factors like availability of talent and other considerations that played the role," he told reporters when asked why Uttar Pradesh, where the party improved its tally from 10 to 21 seats, was not adequately represented in the Cabinet.
On the non-inclusion of Arjun Singh and Shivraj Patil, the PM said: "There are other avenues to use expertise of senior leaders who did not find place in the Council of Ministers."
The Prime Minister was speaking at Rashtrapati Bhavan after swearing in of 59 ministers. The Cabinet has no one from Uttar Pradesh from where five MPs have found place as Ministers of State.
When Gandhi was asked about inadequate representation to Uttar Pradesh in Council of Ministers, she pointed towards Rahul Gandhi and said, "Here is the reason. He is refusing to become a minister. He wants to work for the party."