CHANDIGARH: In a grand ceremony that was attended by NDA leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Nayab Singh Saini was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Haryana in Panchkula today following Bharatiya Janata Party’s best-ever seat tally in the recent assembly elections.
He took the oath of office for the second term along with his cabinet colleagues as the saffron party tried to balance the caste and region combinations. This show of strength by the party at the ceremony is been seen as a morale booster of the party cadres for the upcoming Maharashtra and Jharkhand assembly elections.
The party’s choice of the day for the swearing-in ceremony is significant as it is Valmiki Jayanti. Sage-poet Valmiki is the author of the Hindu epic Ramayana and a revered figure, especially among SCs. Eleven cabinet ministers and two ministers of state (MoS) took oath along with Saini. Haryana can have a maximum of 14 ministers, including the chief minister.
Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya administered the oath of office and secrecy to Nayab Singh Saini, who became the chief minister for the second time he took oath in Hindi. After him, the senior most party leader and seven-time MLA from Ambala cantonment Anil Vij was sworn –in, besides Krishan Lal Panwar LA from Israna, Rao Narbir Singh legislator from Badshahpur, Mahi Pal Danda MLA from Panipat (Rural), Vipul Goel MLA from Faridabad, Dr Arvind Sharma legislator from Gohana, Shyam Singh Rana MLA from Radaur, Ranbir Singh Gangwa (Barwala MLA), Krishan Kumar Bedi legislator from Narwana, Shruti Choudhry MLA from Tosham, Arti Rao legislator from Ateli took oath as cabinet ministers and Rajesh Nagar Tigaon MLA and Gaurav Gautam Palwal MLA took oath as minister of state (independent) charge.
The saffron party has tried to give representation to all the castes in the cabinet as Vij belongs to the Punjabi community in the cabinet, Panwar and Bedi are SC faces, Nabir and Arti are Yadavs, while Danda and Shruti are Jat faces, Goel is a Vaish, Sharma and Gautam are Brahmin community and Rana is Rajput.
Also southern Haryana has been given due representation in the cabinet with Nabir, Arti and Gautam representing the region as the party won 10 out of 11 seats from here. As Vij and Dhanda’s constituencies are on the GT road belt.
While five MLAs from Karnal have not got place in Saini's cabinet, as this Lok Sabha seat is represented by Manohar Lal Khatatr, former CM of the state. While Panipat and Sonepat districts got three ministers. Also, no ministers from the Sirsa and Fatehabad districts as BJP has no MLAs in these two districts.
Arti Singh Rao, daughter of Union Minister Rao Inderjit Singh and Shruti Chaudhory, daughter of party’s Rajya Sabha member of parliament Kiran Choudhary and grand-daughter of former chief minister Bansi Lal were sworn in the cabinet.
Chief ministers of several NDA-ruled states, including Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya and Andhra Pradesh, were in attendance as were BJP president J P Nadda, Union ministers Rajnath Singh and other dignitaries.
Hours before the ceremony, Saini visited the Valmiki Bhawan and offered prayers at a gurdwara and the Mansa Devi temple in Panchkula. He then said that the new BJP government will work towards taking Haryana forward at a rapid pace under the leadership of PM Modi.
"The people of Haryana have shown faith in the Modi government’s policies. The ‘Sankalp Patra’ (poll manifesto) will be fully implemented. Look at our 2014 Sankalp Patra and 2019 Sankalp Patra, we implemented them completely and now this Sankalp Patra will also be implemented by our government,” he said.
In March, the 54-year-old Other Backward Class (OBC) leader Saini who has risen through the ranks of the state unit of the BJP replaced Manohar Lal Khattar as the Haryana chief minister in March to buck anti-incumbency but many felt a change of guard would not be enough to win elections. A low-profile OBC leader Saini proved everyone wrong by steering his party to a third successive term in the jat heartland state.
The BJP won 48 seats in the 90-member assembly. Three Independents, including Hisar MLA Savitri Jindal, have also extended support to the party.
