Haryana Cabinet expanded with 8 new ministers, no place for Anil Vij

Chandigarh: The Nayab Singh Saini government in Haryana carried out its first cabinet expansion on Tuesday by inducting eight party MLAs as ministers.

Senior BJP leader and former home minister Anil Vij did not find a place in the Saini-led cabinet.

Saini and five ministers took oath last week. Haryana can have a maximum of 14 ministers, including the chief minister.

Governor Bandaru Dattatreya administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new ministers at the Raj Bhavan here.

BJP MLA from Hisar Kamal Gupta was the first one to be administered oath as cabinet minister.

Gupta took oath in Sanskrit. He was a minister in the previous M K Khattar cabinet.

Thereafter, Badkhal MLA Seema Trikha, Panipat Rural MLA Mahipal Dhanda, Ambala City MLA Aseem Goel, Nangal Chaudhary MLA Abhe Singh Yadav, Thanesar MLA Subhash Sudha, Bawani Khera MLA Bishamber Singh Balmiki, and Sohna MLA Sanjay Singh were sworn in as ministers of state (independent charge).

Former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar was also present at the swearing-in ceremony.

In a surprise move last week, the BJP replaced Manohar Lal Khattar with OBC leader Saini as Haryana's chief minister in a swift switch in the state, just weeks ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

Saini, who is the party's state unit president, was sworn in as chief minister a week ago along with five ministers hours after the resignation of Khattar. The Saini government won the trust vote in a special session of the state assembly last Wednesday.

On the day of swearing-in of Saini, Khattar, when asked whether Vij’s name was there in the race for the post of a deputy chief minister, had said, "Ministers had to take oath today and his (Vij's) name was on that (list). But he could not come.”

Asked whether Vij was upset, he said, “Anil Vij is our senior colleague... He sometimes gets upset easily, but he becomes normal later.”