Hooda to induct new ministers Friday

Chandigarh, Nov 4 : New ministers in the Congress government in Haryana led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda will be inducted Friday, officials said Wednesday.

Governor Jagannath Pahadia will administer the oath to the new ministers.

It is still not clear who all and how many ministers will make it to the Hooda government.

Sources in the Congress said that up to eight ministers could be sworn in.

The sources say these could include Randeep Singh Surjewala, Venod Sharma, Kiran Chaudhary, Ajay Singh Yadav and Savitri Jindal. There will be three to four new faces.

Hooda, who had a firm grip over the government in his previous tenure (2005-09), is unlikely to have a complete say in choosing ministers given the lesser number of seats the Congress won in the October polls.

The council of ministers in Haryana cannot have more than 14 members, including the chief minister.

Since the Congress got only 40 seats in the assembly this time and had to take the support of seven independent and a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) member, Hooda will have to accommodate some of them in his new government.

Of the 10 ministers in the previous Hooda government, five ministers lost in last month's assembly elections.

These include Birender Singh, Lachhman Dass Arora, Meena Mandal, Mange Ram Gupta and A.C. Chaudhary.

Another minister, Harmohinder Singh Chatha, has been made the assembly speaker. He was the agriculture minister in the previous government.