With two more inductions, Hisar division gets lion's share in Cabinet

Deepender Deswal

Tribune News Service

Hisar, December 28

With the induction of Hisar BJP MLA Kamal Gupta and his JJP counterpart from Tohana Devender Babli in the Haryana Cabinet on Tuesday, the number of ministers from the Hisar administrative division has gone up to five. The other three ministers are JJP MLAs Dushyant Chautala (Deputy CM who represents Uchana in Jind district) and Anoop Dhanak (Uklana, Hisar) and Independent legislator Ranjit Chautala (Rania, Sirsa). The JJP now has three ministers and the BJP 10.

Also read: BJP’s Kamal Gupta, JJP’s Devendra Babli join Haryana Cabinet

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Of the other five divisions, Rohtak has only one minister, Loharu (Bhiwani) MLA JP Dalal. This is despite Rohtak being the home district of CM Manohar Lal Khattar (Karnal MLA) and ex-CM Bhupinder Hooda (Rohtak).

The NCR belt of Gurugram and Faridabad divisions has three ministers. MC Sharma (Ballabgarh MLA) is the only minister from Faridabad. Banwari Lal (Bawal, Rewari) and OP Yadav (Narnaul, Mahendragarh) are from Gurugram. Karnal division is represented by Khattar and Kamlesh Dhanda, an MLA from Kalayat in Kaithal. Ambala division has three ministers, including Anil Vij (Ambala Cantt MLA), Sandeep Singh (Pehowa) and Kanwar Pal Gujjar (Jagadhari, Yamunanagar).

A second-term MLA from Hisar, Gupta had defeated veteran Congress leader Savitri Jindal in 2014. He got re-elected in 2019. A medical officer and belonging to Bhirdana village near Fatehabad, Gupta had served as a surgeon in Hisar and several other places. Babli had defeated then BJP state president Subhash Barala by a massive margin of 52,302 votes in 2019. With his induction, the JJP now has three ministers in the Cabinet, the others being Dushyant Chautala and Dhanak.

The Bharatiya Janata Party fell short of a simple majority in the October 2019 Assembly polls, winning 40 of the 90 seats. It forged an alliance with the JJP, which has 10 MLAs.

All slots filled

• The strength of Haryana council of ministers has touched the upper limit of 14
• The BJP now has 10 ministers, including the CM, and the JJP three, including the Dy CM
• Ranjit Singh Chautala is the lone Independent MLA inducted as minister