Sports Minister Ajay Maken, who has been promoted as the Cabinet Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, thanked Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for reposing confidence in him and giving him the opportunity to perform at a higher level.

"I am very happy that Congress President, Prime Minister, and Rahulji all three of them have given me another opportunity to perform at much higher level. So, I am extremely grateful to them for the confidence that they have posed on me and I will work, in whichever portfolio I am allocated, with full dedication and honesty," said Maken. Maken also mentioned that through this reshuffle a chance was being given to younger leaders to perform.

"It's an opportunity for us. I am not so young but still comparatively younger. People like us have been given opportunity, so I think; now we should perform and we should show our countrymen that comparatively younger people when given an opportunity they perform," said Maken.

Ajay Maken is also distantly related to the former President of India, Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma, says Wikipedia. Ajay Maken's uncle Lalit Maken was married to Dr Sharma's daughter Gitanjali. Geethanjali and Lalit Maken were killed by Sikh Militants in 1985.