Hooda forms Cabinet at last, 9 Ministers sworn in

Chandigarh, Nov 7 : Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who was sworn in as the state CM for a second consecutive term on October 25, today finally constituted his Council of Ministers with the induction of six Cabinet Ministers and three Ministers of State.

The six Cabinet Ministers and three Ministers of State were sworn in by Governor Jagannath Pahadia at the Haryana Raj Bhawan here.

Capt Ajay Singh Yadav, Mr Randeep Singh Surjewala, Mr Mahendra Pratap Singh, Mr Om Prakash Jain, Mr Paramveer Singh and Ms Geeta Bhukkal were sworn in as Cabinet Ministers while Mr Shiv Charan Sharma, Mr Gopal Kanda and Mr Sukhbir Kataria were sworn in as Ministers of State.

However, Mr Kataria whose name was announced for swearing in as a Minister of State could not make it at the swearing-in ceremony which commenced at 1100 hrs. He was sworn in later in the afternoon.

The swearing-in came two weeks after Mr Hooda assumed office.

Ahead of the final installation of the Ministry today, the ruling Congress had resorted to a last-minute postponement of the Cabinet expansion which was earlier scheduled for yesterday.

While five of the six Cabinet Ministers belong to the ruling Congress, the sixth Om, Parkash Jain, is an Independent. All the three Ministers of State are also Independents.

After being sworn in as CM, Mr Hooda proved his majority on the floor of the Assembly on October 28 with the support of seven Independents and one BSP MLA, besides 39 Congress MLAs. A total of 47 MLAs voted in favour of the confidence motion in the 90-member House.

A strong contender for the Cabinet berth former Minister of state for Tourism Kiran Chaudhary, daughter-in-law of former Chief Minister Bansi Lal, could not make it to the Council of Ministers.

Ms Chaudhry was reportedly insistent on being given cabinet rank while she was offered the post of Minister of State. She was also being counted among those who were behind the overnight postponement of the cabinet formation, earlier scheduled for yesterday.

Capt Yadav and Mr Surjewala were both Cabinet ministers in the previous Hooda government in the state while Mr Om Prakash Jain had also served as a Minister in the Bansi Lal government in the past.

There are three new faces in the new Council of Ministers--Mr Mahendra Pratap Singh, Mr Paramveer Singh and Ms Geeta Bhukkal.

Mr Hooda later inducted nine MLAs, six Congress members and three Independents, as the Chief Parliamentary Secrertaries.

The six Congress MLAs who were inducted as Chief Parliamentary Secretaries (CPS) were Mr Dharmbir Singh, Ms Anita Yadav, Ms Sharda Rathore, Mr Rao Dan Singh, Mr Jaiveer Balmiki and Mr Ram Kishan Fauji.

The three Independents sworn in for the post of the CPS were Mr Jaleb Khan, Mr Prahlad Singh and Mr Sultan Singh.

Mr Hooda has thereby accomodated all the seven Independents either in his Council of Ministers or as CPSs. While one of them, Om Prakash Jain, has become a Cabinet minister, three others have been made Ministers of State and the remaining six CPSs.

--UNI

(c) 2009 Published with permission from United News of India.
Unauthorised publication of any content from NewKerala.Com is prohibited