First BJP chief minister of Haryana Manohar Lal Khattar was sworn in along with nine ministers in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, several senior party leaders and CMs of saffron party-ruled states on Sunday . However, outgoing Congress chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda skipped the oath ceremony, saying that he did not get an invitation. “I was the officiating chief minister and any administrative official would have located me and given me an invitation as the protocol requires. But I didn't receive an invite. Had I been invited, I would have received the prime minister and would have attended the function. I am a democrat after all,“ Hooda said. Khattar, a Punjabi and a first-time MLA from Karnal, was administered the oath by governor Kaptan Singh Solanki. He is the 10th CM of Haryana, which was carved out of Punjab in 1966.
Khattar seemed to have the full backing of both the government and the party as Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Piyush Goyal, Krishan Pal Gujjar, Maneka Gandhi, V K Singh and Ram Vilas Paswan were present at the ceremony .INLD's Abhay Chautala and former BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu were also present.
The party has performed a balancing act in cabinet formation. The politically influential Jat community has been represented by former spokesperson Captain Abhimanyu and former president of BJP Kisan Morcha Om Prakash Dhankhar. The Yadavs from south Haryana have been represented by Rao Narbir Singh and Vikram Singh Thekedar. Cabinet ministers Abhimanyu and Dhankhar, and ministers of state Bedi, Kamboj and Thekedar are first-time MLAs.
The six cabinet ministers are Kavita Jain, state BJP president Ram Bilas Sharma, Abhimanyu, Om Parkash Dhankar, Anil Vij and Narbir Singh. Three others -Vikram Singh Thekedar, Krishan Kumar Bedi and Karan Dev Kamboj -are MoS (independent charge).
No comments:
Post a Comment