CHANDIGARH: Haryana’s new Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on Tuesday inducted eight BJP MLAs into his council of ministers, seven of them new faces, in first expansion a week after he took charge replacing Manohar Lal Khattar. Senior BJP leader and former home minister Anil Vij did not find a place in the Saini cabinet, though his name was said to have figured in the initial list of ministers.
Saini and five ministers took oath last week. Haryana can have a maximum of 14 ministers, including the CM. The strength of the Assembly is 90.
BJP MLA from Hisar Kamal Gupta was the first to be administered oath as a cabinet minister. He took oath in Sanskrit. He was a minister in the Khattar cabinet.
Badkhal MLA Seema Trikha, Panipat Rural MLA Mahipal Dhanda, Ambala City MLA Aseem Goel, Nangal Chaudhary MLA Abhe Singh Yadav, Thanesar MLA Subhash Sudha, Bawani Khera MLA Bishamber Singh Balmiki, and Sohna MLA Sanjay Singh were sworn in ministers of state (independent charge).
Khattar, when asked about Vij, whose name figured for the post of a deputy CM, said, “Vij is our senior colleague. He sometimes gets upset easily, but he becomes normal later.”
After the cabinet expansion, Saini praised the previous Khattar-led government.
The ministers’ list does not include any of the six Independent MLAs who offered support to the government during the Assembly floor test.
The Saini government has also tried to do a caste and region-wise balancing act. The legislators of two constituencies neighbouring Vij’s seat — Aseem Goel (Ambala City) and Subhash Sudha (Thanesar) — have been made ministers.