Kalyan is Speaker, Middha his deputy
Harvinder Kalyan and Krishan Middha, both three-time MLAs, were unanimously elected Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the Vidhan Sabha, respectively, today even as the ruling BJP tried to get caste and region equations right.
Hooda, Vij exchange barbs in house
Senior minister Anil Vij and former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda entered into a verbal duel in House on Friday. The trouble arose when Vij termed the period between 2009-2014, when Hooda was the CM, as the ‘black period in Haryana’s legislative history as he was expelled from the House maximum times. He urged the Speaker not to view that period as ‘ideal’. Later, when Vij asserted that the people had rejected the Congress in recent Assembly poll, Hooda hit back saying Vij wanted to make Speaker’s election ‘contentious’. He said the Congress might walk out if Vij did not mind his language.
‘Engineer’ Speaker
- An OBC Ror, Harvinder Kalyan started his political career as a BSP candidate from Gharaunda in 2009
- A BE in civil engineering, Kalyan scored a hat-trick from Gharaunda winning the seat in 2014, 2019 and 2024
- A close associate of ex-CM Manohar Lal Khattar and current CM Nayab Singh Saini, Kalyan was Hafed and public accounts committee chairman
‘Doctor’ Dy Speaker
- Krishan Middha has been a three-time MLA from Jind. A Punjabi, he will be second representative from the community in the government after Anil Vij
- A BAMS doctor, Middha is the son of Hari Chand Middha, a two-time INLD MLA from Jind
- Middha entered electoral politics through a bypoll in Jind in January 2019 after his father’s death
Kashyap is chief whip
The BJP has appointed Indri MLA Ram Kumar Kashyap as the chief whip in the Haryana Assembly. A two-time MLA from Indri, Kashyap has also been a member of the Rajya Sabha
While Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini proposed Gharaunda MLA Kalyan’s name during the daylong oath-taking session of the Haryana Assembly, Ranbir Gangwa, Public Health Engineering and Public Works (Building and Roads) Minister seconded his name. With no other name proposed for Speaker’s post, Pro-tem Speaker Raghuvir Kadian, declared Kalyan elected as the Speaker of the 15th Vidhan Sabha.
Meanwhile, Krishan Lal Panwar, Development and Panchayat and Mines and Geology Minister, and Yamunanagar MLA Ghanshyam Dass Arora, proposed and seconded Jind MLA Middha’s name.
A close associate of former Chief Minister and Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and current Chief Minister Saini, Kalyan has been winning the crucial Gharaunda seat in Karnal district for the saffron party since 2014. A member of the OBC Ror community, which has sizeable presence in the GT Road belt districts of Karnal, Kurukshetra, Panipat and Kaithal, Kalyan’s name was also doing rounds for the ministerial berth in the Saini ministry.
Besides Kalyan, Satpal Jhamba (Pundri) is another BJP legislator from the Ror community. Kalyan’s elevation as a Speaker will go a long way in giving representation to Karnal district, which was the power centre for almost 10 years during two tenures of former CM Manohar Lal Khattar and current CM Saini, who was also elected an MLA through a bypoll from Karnal for a few months.
In the election of Middha as Deputy Speaker, the BJP has given another representation to the Punjabi community, which has returned eight MLAs for the saffron party in the October 5 Assembly elections. A powerful Punjabi leader, Middha is the BJP MLA from the ‘Jatland’ Jind for three terms. After Narwana MLA Krishan Bedi’s elevation as the minister, Middha would be second representative in the government from Jind district. Before Middha, Ambala Cantonment MLA Anil Vij was the only representative from the Punjab community in the ministry.
