A Raja is new communications & IT minister

Environment minister A Raja was today made the new communications and information technology minister in place of Dayanidhi Maran, who was forced by the DMK to resign, in a minor reshuffle of portfolios by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Another DMK leader, minister of state for home S Regupathy, has been moved to the Environment Ministry in the same rank. The Prime Minister, who has decided not to have a full-fledged cabinet minister for this ministry, will be looking after it.

Forty-four-year-old Raja is a lawyer by profession and is in his third term in Lok Sabha. He was elected from Perambalur reserved constituency.

A Rashtrapati Bhavan communique here said that on the advice of the Prime Minister, President A P J Abdul Kalam has accepted the resignation of Maran from the council of ministers with immediate effect.

Maran was forced by the party to resign in the wake a family divide triggered by a survey carried by Dinakaran newspaper, owned by Maran's elder brother Kalanidhi, that resulted in violence in Madurai leading to the loss of 3 lives.