7 first-time ministers among 8 more to enter Haryana Cabinet

Geetanjali Gayatri

Chandigarh, March 19

The Nayab Singh Saini government in Haryana carried out its first Cabinet expansion today, inducting eight ministers against as many vacancies, among them seven first-timers.

Of those administered the oath of office by Governor Bandaru Dattatreya at Raj Bhavan here, Hisar MLA Kamal Gupta, also a minister in the previous Manohar Lal Khattar government, is the only one to be made Cabinet minister while the seven first-timers have been inducted as Ministers of State with independent charge.

With the expansion, the strength of the council of ministers has reached 14, including the Chief Minister. Five ministers were inducted on March 12 along with Chief Minister Saini. As no Independent MLA was inducted today, Ranjit Singh, also a minister in the Khattar government and inducted into the Cabinet last week, is the only in the category to find a berth. Senior BJP leader and former Home Minister Anil Vij too has been kept out. Gupta, who took oath in Sanskrit, was the first to be sworn-in and is placed sixth in hierarchy. The seven Ministers of State are Seema Trikha (Badkhal MLA), Mahipal Dhanda (Panipat Rural), Aseem Goel (Ambala City), Abhey Singh Yadav (Nangal Chaudhary), Subhash Sudha (Thanesar), Bishamber Singh Balmiki (Bawani Khera) and Sanjay Singh (Sohna).

With Haryana set to witness Lok Sabha (May) and Vidhan Sabha (October) polls this year, CM Saini has tried to balance caste and regional equations. The new council of ministers has two Punjabis—Subhash Sudha and Seema Trikha (a Punjabi-Brahmin who is also the only woman in the Cabinet). Goel has been inducted to offset the disadvantage of losing Vij, who has been upset after the change of guard in the state. Gupta and Goel are from the trader community. Banwari Lal and Bishamber Singh Balmiki are from the SC community while JP Dalal, Ranjit Singh and Mahipal Dhanda are Jat faces. This assumes significance as the BJP government has always played the non-Jat card under ex-CM Khattar. The Rajput, Ahir, Brahmin and Gujjar communities have also been given representation while the party has played the OBC card by replacing Saini with Khattar at the helm.

The GT Road, which earlier had CM Khattar and Vij in the government, is now represented by three ministers. As Saini is contesting from Karnal, his Cabinet will have four MLAs from the belt, indicating the BJP will rely heavily on the region to send back MLAs to the next Assembly.