No place for Anil Vij in Haryana cabinet expansion as 8 new ministers sworn in

Chandigarh, Mar 19 (PTI) Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on Tuesday inducted eight BJP MLAs into his council of ministers, seven of them new faces, in its first expansion a week after he took charge replacing Manohar Lal Khattar.

Senior BJP leader and former home minister Anil Vij did not find a place in the Saini-led cabinet, though his name was said to have figured in the initial list of ministers.

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. Chief Minister Saini and his predecessor Khattar were present in the ceremony.

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

Seven new faces, including Badkhal MLA Seema Trikha, were inducted as ministers of state (independent charge). Trikha is the lone woman in the council of ministers.

The remaining new ministers are 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.

On March 12, five ministers who had taken oath were BJP's Kanwar Pal (Jagadhari), Mool Chand Sharma (Ballabhgarh), Jai Parkash Dalal (Loharu) and Banwari Lal (Bawal), and Independent MLA Ranjit Singh Chautala (Rania in Sirsa).

These five, who took oath last week, and Kamal Gupta were also ministers in the previous Khattar led cabinet.

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

Among the ministers in the Khattar cabinet who did not find a place in the Saini ministry are Vij, Kamlesh Dhanda and Sandeep Singh.

Besides, three ministers including former deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala were part of the Khattar cabinet.

Chautala's JJP and the BJP are set to contest the polls separately now.

Saini, who is the BJP 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, Khattar had said, Anil Vij is our senior colleague... He sometimes gets upset easily, but he becomes normal later." In the past too, there have been many incidents when Vij got upset over something but later on things became normal, said Khattar.

"I spoke with him. He said he did not feel like coming (for the oath-taking event). We will speak to him. Nayab Saini ji will also speak to him," he added.

Earlier on Tuesday, when asked about the cabinet expansion, Vij said, "I have no information." He, however, asserted that he was not upset.

Vij has apparently been upset with the party not keeping him in the loop when they decided to make Saini the chief minister by removing Khattar. He said he came to know about it only in the BJP MLAs' meeting here last week in which Saini's name was announced.

"It was not in my knowledge that the chief minister of our state was being changed. This came as a bombshell to me that the chief minister was being changed," Vij told reporters here earlier.

The Saini government has also tried to do a caste and region wise balancing act, with Brahmin, Dalit, Jat and Punjabi community faces given a berth in the cabinet.

The legislators of two constituencies neighbouring Vij's seat -- Aseem Goel (Ambala City) and Subhash Sudha (Thanesar) -- have been made ministers.

In Saini's ministry, Mool Chand Sharma and Seema Trikha come from Faridabad region while Dhanda, Aseem Goel, Subhash Sudha and Kanwar Pal are MLAs from north Haryana.

Abhe Yadav, Sanjay Singh and Banwari Lal come from the Ahirwal belt in south Haryana.

Ranjit Chautala, the MLA from Rania in Sirsa district, is the only Independent among six of the total seven who support the BJP government.

Six-time MLA Vij had walked out of the legislature party meeting where Saini was unanimously named the chief minister-designate. Vij, who held the home portfolio in the Manohar Lal Khattar government, was often at loggerheads with the chief minister. He was earlier said to be "upset" over being "ignored" by the BJP.

Replying to questions from reporters here, he said, "I have said earlier too that I am a dedicated worker of the Bharatiya Janata Party. I am never upset with anything. Whatever I have to say, I say it clearly." To a question about whether he wanted to be included in the Saini Cabinet, he replied, "This is a hypothetical question".

When asked about Khattar's earlier comment that Vij gets upset easily but later becomes okay too, the former Haryana minister said, "I don't know on what basis he said so." With Chief Minister Saini taking out a roadshow which crossed Ambala Cantonment, the assembly segment represented by Vij, the former state home minister said, "Had Saini come to my residence, I would have offered him tea." Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Saini, while interacting with reporters after paying obeisance at Nada Sahib Gurdwara in Panchkula, said that Vij is "our respected leader and we have been regularly getting guidance from him". PTI