Chandigarh: The OBC leader Nayab Saini who took the oath as the chief minister of Haryana on Thursday at a ceremony in Panchkula, has struck a caste and regional balance in his 13-member council of ministers who were also sworn in on the occasion
It was Saini’s second term as CM as he was the chief ministerial face declared by the BJP which has formed the government in the state for the third consecutive year after a notable win of 48 out of total 90 seats in the recently held assembly election. He had replaced chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar in March this year, a few months ahead of assembly polls.
The grand swearing-in ceremony was attended by several top leaders of the saffron party including Prime Minister Narendra, Union ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, party president J P Nadda, and the chief ministers of several NDA-ruled states including Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya and Andhra Pradesh.
Among the ministers who also took the oath on the occasion was party’s senior most leader and the 7-time legislator Anil Vij, who represents the Punjabi community and Ambala Cantt seat.
The OBC community had the maximum representation in the chief minister’s council of ministers – five ministers including CM; Beside the chief minister himself, other leaders from the OBC included Rao Narbir Singh (Ahir), who is MLA from Badshahpur assembly seat, and Ranbir Gangwa (Prajapati) from Barwala, Rajesh Nagar (Gujjar), from Tigaon and Arti Rao (Ahir) from Ateli seat.
While two Jat leaders, namely, Mahipal Dhanda from Panipat (Rural) and Shruti Choudhry from Tosham, were sworn as ministers, two Brahmin leaders namely Arvind Sharma, the MLA from Gohana and Gaurav Gautam from Palwal also took the oath, besides the two Dalit leaders, Krishan Panwar, the MLA from Israna and Krishan Bedi from Narwana.
Likewise, while Vipul Goel, the MLA from Faridabad belongs to Baniya community, Radaur MLA Shyam Singh Rana belongs to Rajput community.
While chief minister Nayab Saini, Anil Vij, Shyam Singh Rana, Mahipal Dhanda and Krishan Panwar represented GT road belt (Kurukshetra, Ambala, Yamunanagar and Panipat districts) of the state, Vipul Goel, Rajesh Nagar and Gaurav Gautam represented Faridabad and Gurugram districts of national capital region (NCR) region.
While Rao Narbir Singh and Arti Rao represented (Ahirwal belt – Gurugram and Mahendergarh districts) and Shruti Choudhry (district Bhiwani of Bagri belt), Arvind Sharma had won Gohana seat of Jat heartland Sonepat district and Krishan Bedi from Narwana seat in Jind district and Ranbir Gangwa from Nalwa seat in Hisar district (Bangar region).
Except for Rajesh Nagar and Gaurav Gautam, who were inducted as state ministers, all the other 11 ministers were inducted as Cabinet ministers. Except for Shruti Choudhry, who took oath in English, all of the newly inducted ministers took oath in Hindi.
With this, Saini’s council of ministers was complete with the induction of 13 ministers as Haryana can have a maximum 14 ministers including the chief minister.
Earlier, while interacting with newspersons Saini said that the new BJP government would work towards taking the state forward at a rapid pace under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi. To a question pertaining to the new challenges, Saini said that all the promises made in the party’s poll manifesto would be fully implemented like the manifestoes of 2014 and 2019 which were also completely implemented.
