The new 13-member Cabinet of Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini was put together by the BJP with consideration for both regional representation and caste equations. The Cabinet took oath on Thursday.
Nayab Singh Saini
The BJP has ministers from the Dalit, Jat, Brahmin, Ahir, Punjabi, Gurjar, Baniya, and Rajput communities in addition to Saini, the party’s OBC face. The Cabinet now includes prominent political figures, families, and regions such as seven-term MLA Anil Vij, Arti Rao Singh -the daughter of Union Minister Rao Inderjit Singh and the granddaughter of former Chief Minister Bansi Lal, Shruti Choudhry (Tosham MLA).
With five OBC ministers, the community has got a significant chunk of berths. Other than Nayab Singh Saini, the rest four OBC ministers are Badshahpur MLA Rao Narbir Singh, Barwala MLA Ranbir Singh Gangwa, Tigaon MLA Rajesh Nagar, and Arti.
There are two Jat ministers in the Cabinet, who make up a quarter of Haryana’s population and having primarily aligned themselves with the Congress. The two of them are Shruti and Panipat Rural MLA Mahipal Dhanda.
The Dalit community was represented by Narwana MLA Krishan Bedi and Israna MLA Krishan Lal Panwar, two of the eight Dalit MLAs in the Assembly.
The BJP scheduled the swearing-in ceremony on Valmiki Jayanti to highlight the significance it puts on Dalits, and Saini visited a Valmiki temple in Panchkula prior to taking the oath.
Anil Vij, a seven-time MLA, who belongs to Punjabi community has also been included in the cabinet. Punjabi votes have been a crucial source of support for the BJP since Manohar Lal Khattar was appointed chief minister in 2014. Vij is expected to be given important portfolios.
The Cabinet has two Brahmins in Gohana MLA Arvind Sharma and Palwal legislator Gaurav Gautam, and one member each from the Punjabi (Vij), Baniya (Faridabad MLA Vipul Goel), and Rajput (Radaur MLA Shyam Singh Rana) communities.
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