Haryana’s representation at Centre down to 2
Sushil Manav
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, July 7
The state’s representation in the Narendra Modi Cabinet has been reduced to two from earlier three following today’s expansion and reshuffle.
This is so because Ambala MP Rattan Lal Kataria resigned as the Minister of State for Jal Shakti hours before the Cabinet expansion. No new face from the state was inducted in the Modi Cabinet.
Haryana sends 10 MPs to the Lok Sabha; the BJP had won all 10 seats in the 2019 General Election.
Of the five Rajya Sabha members from Haryana, three are from the BJP, one from the Congress (Deepender Hooda) and one is an Independent supporting the BJP (Zee Group owner Subhash Chandra).
Ambala MP resigns as MoS
Ambala MP Rattan Lal Kataria resigned as the Minister of State for Jal Shakti hours before the Cabinet expansion
No new face from the state has been inducted in the Modi Cabinet
Social media hype
Before the Modi Cabinet reshuffle, the names of Sirsa MP Sunita Duggal, a former Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, and Hisar MP Brijendra Singh, a former IAS officer, were doing the rounds on social media. When the final list was released in the noon, neither of the two could find a place in the Modi Cabinet.
Before today’s expansion, Haryana had three ministers in the Union Cabinet — Gurugram MP Rao Inderjit Singh, Minister of State (Independent Charge), Statistics and Programme Implementation and Ministry of Planning; Faridabad MP Krishan Pal Gurjar, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment; and Ambala MP Rattan Lal Kataria, Minister of State for Jal Shakti.
The names of Sirsa MP Sunita Duggal, former IRS officer, and Hisar MP Brijendra Singh, a former IAS officer, were doing rounds on social media, but when the final list was released in the noon, neither of the two could find a place.
Duggal’s supporters in her Sirsa constituency were excited about the possibility of her being inducted in the Cabinet after several TV channels played the news that she had entered the PM’s residence for a meeting before the reshuffle.
Duggal being a Dalit MP, her chances looked bright when Kataria, the other Dalit MP from the state, resigned.
