New Delhi: The Nayab Singh Saini-led Haryana government on Tuesday carried out the first cabinet expansion by inducting eight MLAs as ministers.
CM Saini and five ministers were inducted into the cabinet last week.
Governor Bandaru Dattatreya administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new ministers at the Raj Bhavan in Chandigarh.
BJP MLA from Hisar Kamal Gupta was the first one to be administered oath as a cabinet minister. Gupta took oath in Sanskrit. He was a minister in the previous M K Khattar cabinet.
Thereafter, Badkhal MLA Seema Trikha, 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 were sworn in as ministers of state (independent charge).
Former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar was also present at the swearing-in ceremony.
In a surprise move last week, the BJP replaced Manohar Lal Khattar with OBC leader Saini as Haryana's chief minister in a swift switch in the state, just weeks ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
Saini, who is the party's 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.
Khattar, who resigned as an MLA from Karnal, has been made a party candidate to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Karnal.