New Haryana Govt to take oath in Panchkula on Oct 17
For the second time in 10 years, Panchkula township in Chandigarh’s periphery, will witness VVIP-studded swearing-in ceremony of the BJP government in Haryana on October 17. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, ministers and chief ministers of BJP-ruled states will attend the ceremony.
The date for the oath-taking was “finalised” after caretaker CM Nayab Singh Saini met Home Minister Amit Shah and other senior leaders in New Delhi last night following confirmation of PM Modi’s availability from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
Meanwhile, sources said the ceremony would be preceded by a meeting of the BJP legislature party next week in which Saini, the CM face of the saffron party in the Assembly poll, was expected to be chosen as the leader of the legislature party.
Confirming that Modi would attend the ceremony, Saini today credited the BJP’s win to welfare initiatives of the “double-engine” government in the last 10 years. The sources said the BJP wanted the ceremony to be a grand affair to rejuvenate the party cadre for the crucial Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Delhi Assembly elections.
“Thousands of BJP workers will attend the October 17 ceremony to celebrate the BJP’s splendid hat-trick in Haryana,” said state BJP chief Mohan Lal Badoli. He said Haryana win would set the tone for the saffron party’s win in the upcoming Assembly elections. In 2014, the sprawling Dussehra Ground in Sector 5, Panchkula, was also the venue for the oath-taking ceremony of first-time MLA Manohar Lal Khattar, who became the CM from the saffron party when the party won a clear majority with 47 seats in the 90-member House. At that time too, the top BJP brass, including PM Modi, had attended the function. In the recent elections, the BJP won 48 seats, becoming the first party in Haryana’s electoral history to score a hat-trick.
State Chief Secretary TVSN Prasad has already constituted a committee under the Panchkula DC to oversee the preparations for the function.