Panchkula, Haryana: RSS-man Manohar Lal Khattar became Haryana’s first chief minister from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as he took oath at a ceremony held at Panchkula on Sunday. Khattar is the 10th chief minister of the state, which was created November 1, 1966.
The oath was administered to Khattar by another RSS-man Kaptan Singh Solanki who was recently appointed governor of the state by the BJP government. Nine ministers, including six of cabinet rank and three ministers of state (independent charge), also took oath today during a ceremony that was attended by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Apart from Narendram Modi, some of his cabinet colleagues, chief ministers of BJP-ruled states and RSS leaders were present on the occasion. Senior BJP leaders such as Lal Krishna Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi were also attended the function.
The Hindutva party won 47 of the 90 seats in the state. The party’s vote share jumpted to 33% from 9%.
The six cabinet ministers sworn-in on the occasion were Ram Bilas Sharma, Abhimanyu, OP Dhankar, Anil Vij, Narvir Singh and Kavita Jain.
Other ministers of state (MoS) to be administered the oath of office and secrecy were Bikram Singh Thekedar, Krishan Kumar and Karan Dev Kamboj. They all will hold independent charges.