Eighteen days after the BJP and the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) formed a government in Haryana with Manohar Lal Khattar as Chief Minister, Governor Satyadev Narayan Arya on Thursday administered the oath of office and secrecy to 10 Ministers. Six of them are of the Cabinet rank and four Ministers of State.
Eight of them are from the BJP, one is from the JJP and one is an Independent. The sole woman Minister belongs to the BJP.
Five of the six Cabinet Ministers are from the BJP. They are six-time MLA Anil Vij; former Speaker Kanwar Pal Gujjar, who belongs to the Other Backward Class; Banwari Lal, the BJP’s Dalit face; Mool Chand Sharma, a Brahmin and two-time MLA; and Jai Parkash Dalal, a Jat and a first-time MLA. The Independent MLA from Rania Ranjit Singh was also given a Cabinet berth.
Ministers of State with independent charge are Om Parkash Yadav of the BJP, who is an MLA from Narnaul; Ms. Kamlesh Dhanda, the BJP MLA from Kalayat; Anoop Dhanak, the JJP MLA from Uklana; and Sandeep Singh, the former Indian hockey team captain and BJP MLA from Pehowa.
The Cabinet can have 14 members, including the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister.
Later in the day, the Chief Minister recommended to the Governor the allocation of portfolios. Mr. Vij will look after Home and Health and Mr. Pal will handle Education and Forest. Mr. Sharma has been given Transport and Mines. Mr. Ranjit Singh will handle Power, Mr. Dalal Agriculture and Mr. Lal Cooperation.
Mr. Khattar was sworn in on October 27 as the Chief Minister for the second time. Dushyant Chautala of the Jannayak Janta Party took the oath as Deputy Chief Minister. However, no Ministers were sworn in that day. Governor allocated eleven portfolios on November 13.
As per a notification, the Deputy Chief Minister has been given excise and taxation, industries and commerce, revenue and disaster management, public works, development and panchayats, food, civil supplies-consumer affairs, labour and employment, civil aviation, archaeology and museums, rehabilitation and consolidation.
All other departments are with Mr. Khattar.
