NEW DELHI, Oct 17: A 13-member BJP ministry headed by Nayab Singh Saini was installed in the office in Haryana on Thursday in the presence of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and several Chief Ministers from the BJP ruled States.
Mr Saini took oath as the new Chief Minister for the second term, days after the BJP successfully retained power in the recently held Assembly election.
The Haryana governor Bandaru Dattatreya administered the oath of office and secrecy at the swearing-in-ceremony held in Haryana’s Panchkula. In the new Cabinet, thirteen legislators have been inducted, including two women.
Those who were administered oath of office and secrecy in the Cabinet as Ministers include – Anil Vij, Arvind Kumar Sharma, Shyam Singh Rana, Ranbir Singh Gangwa, Krishan Bedi, Krishan Lal Panwar, Rao Narbir Singh, Mahipal Dhanda, Vipul Goel, Shruti Choudhry, Arti Singh Rao, Rajesh Nagar and Gaurav Gautam.
Mr Saini, a Dalit leader, was elected the leader of BJP legislature party on Wednesday after which he had announced that he would take oath on the occasion of the ‘Valmiki Jayanti’ on Thursday, which in political circle is being seen as an attempt of the BJP to establish a ‘pro-Dalit’ image.
Interestingly, during the Assembly poll campaign, the BJP’s outreach to woo ‘Dalits’ was evident, and as it was successful in increasing its tally in the Scheduled Caste (SC) reserved category seats. In Haryana, there are 17 reserved seats, and the BJP in 2024 Assembly poll won eight seats in comparison to 2019 when it had five seats.
Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court refused to stay the oath taking ceremony of the Nayab Singh Saini-led BJP government. A Bench comprising Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra took strong note of the plea, and said it may impose costs on the petitioner for filing such a plea.
“Do you want us to stall the oath taking of an elected government? We are putting you on guard. We will impose costs. Circulate the papers. We will see,” the CJI said when the plea was mentioned for urgent hearing at the start of the day’s proceedings. “How can we restrain the elected government from taking oath,” the CJI asked. The Bench asked the petitioner to circulate three copies of the petition for the three judges and cautioned with imposition of fine.
(Manas Dasgupta)