After registering a third consecutive and historic victory defeating arch rival and principal opposition Congress in Haryana Assembly polls, the exercise for formation of new government and cabinet in BJP has intensified and in view of this, newly elected and re-elected MLAs have started lobbying to get ministerial posts. In this connection, the several party MLAs were also called to Delhi on October 9, the day after the elections. Now in this connection, the swearing-in ceremony of the Chief Minister and his cabinet ministers is believed to be held after Dussehra.
In this regard, Nayab Singh Saini met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Wednesday ahead of the formation of the BJP government and new cabinet. It is noteworthy that Nayab Singh Saini had already been declared as the Chief Ministerial candidate by the BJP party high command ahead of the polls so in wake of this, the formal selection process is also to be carried out for his coronation on the CM›s chair.
In continuation to the aforementioned, it is pertinent to mention that a total of 14 ministers including the CM can be appointed in Haryana. Out of the 48 MLAs of BJP, Nayab Singh Saini, Mahipal Dhanda and Moolchand Chand, who were included in the cabinet in March 2024, have successfully contested the polls. Former Home Minister Anil Vij, Moolchand Sharma and Mahila Dhanda are sure to be made ministers. Since, 9 MLAs who were given berths in Nayab Singh Saini led-cabinet, have lost the battle and fierce competition is believed to be among the party MLAs for the remaining ministerial posts. BJP ministers including Sanjay Singh, Kamal Gupta, Gyan Chand Gupta, Subhash Sudha, Ranjit Singh Chautala, JP Dalal, Abhay Singh Yadav, Jai Prakash Dalal and Kanwarpal Gurjar had to face defeat in the polls. Notably, in the assembly elections held in the year 2019 under the leadership of former CM Manohar Lal, 7 BJP ministers and the then state Subhash Barala including including Om Prakash Dhankhar from Badli, Finance Minister Captain Abhimanyu from Narnaund, Ram Vilas Sharma from Mahendragarh, Karan Dev Kamboj and Kavita Jain from Sonipat had to face defeat from Sonipat.
Like ticket distribution, in the formation of the cabinet,Dr. Krishna Midda from Jind, Dr. Arvind Sharma from Gohana, Shakti Rani Sharma from Kalka, Vipul Goyal from Faridabad, Ghanshyam Saraf from Bhiwani, Rao Narbir from Badshahpur, Krishna Lal Panwar from Israna, Krishna Kumar Bedi from Narwana, MLA Harvinder Kalyan from Gharaunda, Krishna Gahlawat from Rai, former Deputy Speaker Ranbir Gangwa and Ghanshyam Arora from Yamunanagar are in fray for the post of minister on the basis of caste and region. It should also be mentioned that the Speaker and Deputy Speaker are also to be appointed.
Before the elections, Congress veteran Bhupendra Singh Hooda had promised several times to appoint four deputy CMs if the Congress government comes to power, now a constant talks continue to prevail pertaining to whether the BJP is likely to initiate a new tradition in Haryana with the model of deputing two deputy CMs in order to strike caste equations. However the possibility regarding the same seems blurred due to two reasons – firstly, BJP refused to come up with any such promise of appointing two deputy CMs before the elections and secondly, 48 MLAs of the party have been elected, which means there is an absolute majority. In such a situation, there is no pressure of MLAs on BJP due to which any MLA can show rebellious attitude if not made a minister. If the BJP comes with the aforementioned strategy, then former Home Minister Anil Vij and a Brahmin MLA can be appointed as Deputy Chief Minister.
Caste equations played a key role in ticket distribution by BJP before the assembly elections. BJP had given the maximum number of 23 seats to backward caste candidates and had also fielded 16 Jat candidates. Among the 23 backward caste candidates, two Meo-Muslims are included. Apart from this, 2 Bishnoi, 5 Vaishya, 11 Brahmin, 11 Punjabi, 3 Rajput and 17 candidates from Scheduled Caste were included. On the other hand, Congress, which faced defeat, gave tickets to maximum 25 leaders from Jat community and 4 leaders from Jat Sikh community and fielded 24 candidates from OBC category, which included three Meo-Muslims. Apart from this, trust was shown on six leaders from Brahmin community, 5 leaders from Muslim community, while Congress has given 11 tickets to Punjabis and Sikhs, while Vaishyas got two, Rajput, Bishnoi and Rod community got one ticket each.
Shakti Rani Sharma: Top contender among BJP women MLAs
In this row, it is noteworthy that five of the women candidates who succeeded in winning the polls included Shakti Rani Sharma from Kalka, Aarti Rao from Ateli, Shruti Chaudhary from Tosham, Bimla Chaudhary from Pataudi and Krishna Gahlawat from Rai. Political experts believe that among all the above BJP women MLAs, Shakti Rani Sharma is the strongest contender as apart from being a female face in his favour, she hails from the Brahmin community and a prominent political family of the state.