Jannayak Janata Party leader Dushyant Chautala interacts with locals in Sirsa district of Haryana. (Photo | PTI)
NEW DELHI: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar is learnt to have discussed his new team after most of the ministers lost elections in the state polls. Khattar has sought concurrence with the BJP chief Amit Shah on the expansion of his council of ministers.
Anil Vij and Banwari Lal, the two ministers who ducked the popular anger against Khattar’s ministers, are likely to find space in the council of ministers.
Khattar is likely to give a Cabinet and a minister of state berth to Jananayak Janata Party (JJP), which joined the BJP in a post alliance after the state threw a hung Assembly. The BJP is also mulling to induct a couple of Independents in the Haryana government to gain stability.
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Mahipal Dhanda and Seema Trikha are also seen probable to join the Khattar government. Nayanpal Rawat and Balraj Kundi from the pack of Independent candidates are also in the reckoning to join the Khattar government.
Incidentally, the Team Khattar 2.0 would broadly boast of new faces, with the chief minister lacking the option to choose from the experienced BJP leaders. “With scores of ministers losing polls, Khattar has a task at hand to groom his ministers afresh. The verdict is an irony for Khattar that core members of his team lost elections. His new team can not benefit from the administrative experience of the past five years,” said a senior BJP functionary.
The BJP leaders claimed that the people vented their anger against ministers in the Khattar government for not nursing their constituencies. “These ministers ignored their constituencies, which in turn invited the anger of the people. This is also ironical that the BJP couldn’t gain the mandate on own because the ministers failed to defend their seats,” noted another BJP functionary.
Will provide stable govt: Dushyant
Haryana’s Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala on Monday said the BJP-JJP combine will provide a “stable and honest” government to the state and work for the welfare of all sections of the society. “We will provide a stable, honest and transparent administration, which will work for the welfare of all sections,” said the 31-year-old leader of Jannayak Janata Party, who was sworn in on Sunday as deputy chief minister in the Manohar Lal Khattar-led government. Khattar took oath as state’s chief minister for the second time on Sunday with Dushyant Chautala.
