Chandigarh, October 24
The Haryana Council of Ministers to be sworn-in at Panchkula along with Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on October 26 will a blend of party veterans and first-time MLAs.

Names of senior party leaders, including Ram Bilas Sharma, Capt Abhimanyu, OP Dhankar and Anil Vij, who were in the race for the post of chief minister, are doing rounds for the Council of Ministers to be headed by Khattar, who himself is a first time MLA. Besides, Prem Lata, wife of former Congress veteran Birender Singh who joined the BJP ahead of the Assembly polls, may also be accommodated as a minister in the Khattar ministry, sources told The Tribune today.

Others whose names are being mentioned as probable ministers are: Sonepat MLA Kavita Jain and Bhiwani MLA Ghanshyam Saraf, who retained their seats in the recent Assembly elections.

While Capt Abhimanyu, Dhandkar and Prem Lata would be the Jat faces, Vij, Jain and Saraf would be non-Jat faces in the Cabinet. “Since the urban and non-Jat voters played a major role in BJP’s historic win, the Cabinet will reflect those sentiments. Substantial representation will go to MLAs representing urban areas, non-Jats and Dalits,” the sources said.

Among the other non-Jats, who may be inducted into the Cabinet are Gian Chand Gupta, Manish Grover, Kamal Gupta, Subhash Sudha, Seema Trikha, Santosh Yadav and Latika Sharma. Bakshish Singh Virk could be the Sikh representative in the Cabinet. A senior leader, failing to make it to the Cabinet, may be accommodated as Vidhan Sabha Speaker or Deputy Speaker. The post of the Deputy Speaker may go to one of the four MLAs (one BSP and three Independents), who had extended support to the BJP. The ministry can have a maximum of 14 ministers.

The first timers who could make to the ministry, include: Umesh Aggarwal, Seema Trikha, Latika Sharma, Karan Dev Kamboj, Rohita Rewri, Vipul Goel (Faridabad), Pawan Saini (Ladwa) and Naresh Kaushik (Bahadurgarh).