Enviroment Minister A Raja was on Tuesday made the new Communications and Information Technology Minister in place of Dayanidhi Maran, who was forced by the Dravida Munnethra Kazhagam 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.

44-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 in New Delhi 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 loss of three lives.