Nine-member Hooda ministry sworn in

New Delhi: Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Saturday constituted his council of ministers by inducting six Cabinet ministers and three ministers of state.

The new council of ministers was constituted more than a fortnight after the ruling Congress party emerged victorious in the state elections which, however, created a hung state legislature.

The members of the council of ministers were sworn in by Governor Jagannath Pahadia at a simple ceremony at the Haryana Raj Bhawan (the governor's official residence), situated in the state capital Chandigarh.

Capt Ajay Singh Yadav, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Mahendra Pratap Singh, Prakash Jain, Paramveer Singh and Geeta Bhukkal were sworn in as cabinet ministers while Shiv Charan Sharma, Gopal Kanda and Sukhbir Kataria were sworn in as ministers of state.

Hooda himself was sworn in for a second consecutive term on October 25 after the Congress party, which could garner only 40 out of 90 seats in the elections, supported its claim to form the government with the support of seven Independents and a lone Bahujan Samaj Party legislator.

Later, Hooda inducted nine legislators as chief parliamentary secretaries in order to ensure continued support of the independents and to accommodate those who could not make it as ministers.

The post of chief parliamentary secretary is not constitutional, although the nominees draw salaries and perks commensurate with those of a junior minister.

Aware of the machinations of Om Prakash Chautala, chief of the rival Indian National Lok Dal party, to topple his government, Hooda has accommodated all seven Independents.

One of them, Om Prakash Jain, was made cabinet minister, while three each were made ministers of state and chief parliamentary secretaries.

The central office of the Congress party has been trying to get on board the breakaway Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC), which has six legislators, in order to ensure the new government enjoys a comfortable majority in the hung house.

Committee appointed

Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi constituted a coordination committee for Haryana under the chairmanship of Prithviraj Chauhan, the party general-secretary in charge of the state, in view of the party's thin majority in the state Assembly.

Senior leader Birender Singh, who served as finance minister in the previous Hooda government and lost the just-concluded elections by a narrow margin, is the co-chairman of the panel.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee president and federal minister Kumari Selja, Dr Ram Prakash and Capt Ajay Singh Yadav are also on the panel.