Nayab Singh Saini on Tuesday took oath as the Haryana Chief Minister with a full-strength 13-member Council of Ministers to kick off the BJP’s third consecutive term in the state. While 11 ministers have been accorded the Cabinet rank, Tigaon MLA Rajesh Nagar and Palwal legislator Gaurav Gautam have been made the Ministers of State (independent charge) in the new Saini government. Only two ministers from the previous Saini-led BJP government had won the recent Assembly polls, and only one of them – Panipat Rural MLA Mahipal Dhanda – found a place in the new ministry. Here is a look at Saini's new ministry in his second term as the CM. Anil Vij A seven-time MLA who hails from the Punjabi community, Vij is one of the senior most BJP leaders of the state. In the Manohar Lal Khattar Cabinet, the 71-year-old held important portfolios like Home and Health till he was dropped after Saini took over as CM in March this year. Ahead of the polls, Vij had staked claim on the CM’s post and termed himself “the best CM candidate in the BJP”. However, after the results he seemingly softened his stand. “I will perform my duties even if the party appoints me a chaukidar (security guard),” he had said on Wednesday, a day before the swearing-in event. Krishan Lal Panwar Among eight BJP MLAs from the Dalit community, Israna MLA and former Rajya Sabha MP Panwar along with Narwana legislator Krishan Bedi were seen as frontrunners for a Cabinet berth. Panwar, 67, resigned as a member of the Upper House after he was elected as an MLA. Arvind Sharma Following his Lok Sabha loss from Rohtak to Congress’s Deepender Singh Hooda, 61-year-old Sharma won from the Gohana Assembly seat. The newly inducted minister had defeated Hooda in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. He was seen to be a strong contender among the seven Brahmin MLAs for a ministerial berth. Ranbir Gangwa A prominent OBC leader, 60-year-old Ranbir Gangwa is among the 14 BJP MLAs from the OBC communities. While he was elected from the Nalwa seat in 2019, he won the Barwala seat this time. Gangwa has served as the Deputy Speaker of the Haryana Assembly between 2019 and 2024. Shruti Choudhry A law graduate, 49-year-old Shruti crossed over to the BJP from the Congress with her mother Kiran Choudhry ahead of the Assembly polls. A former MP from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh, she won the Tosham seat with a margin of over 14,000 votes to become the MLA for the first time. Arti Singh Rao A first-time MLA from Ateli, 45-year-old Arti Singh Rao, who won with a narrow margin of 3,085 votes, has been a national skeet shooting champion for a record 15 times and was appointed as the president of the Haryana Para Sports Association last year. Her father Rao Inderjt Singh, a former Rewari royal, left the Congress to join the BJP ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and has been a political heavyweight in South Haryana. His supporters earlier projected him as the “bhavi (future) CM” but since the BJP declared Saini as its face, they had been pushing the party to give Arti “her due political share” and sought the Deputy CM’s post for her. Mahipal Dhanda A three-time MLA from Panipat Rural, 50-year-old Dhanda is the only minister from the previous Saini Cabinet to be retained. He is one of the six Jat BJP legislators to win the recent Assembly polls. Vipul Goel A minister in the first Khattar government in 2014, Goel was not fielded by the BJP in the 2019 polls. The 52-year-old however won the recent Assembly polls from Faridabad. Krishan Bedi Krishan Bedi was inducted as a minister in the first Khattar government after winning the 2014 Assembly polls from Shahbad with a narrow margin of 500 votes. He lost the seat in the 2019 polls. However, Khattar appointed the Dalit leader as his political secretary. In the recent polls, Bedi, 57, won the elections from Narwana. Rao Narbir Singh The 63-year-old Badshahpur MLA was confident of a Cabinet berth as he has been made minister every time he has won the Assembly polls. In 1987, he first became minister in the Lok Dal-BJP government after he won his first Assembly election. He again found a place in the Cabinet after he won the polls in 1996 and 2014. Shyam Singh Rana A chief parliamentary secretary during the first Khattar government, 76-year-old Rana won from Radaur, a seat he had also won in 2014. In September 2020, he was among the four former BJP MLAs who supported the farmers in their protest against the now-repealed farm laws. He subsequently quit the BJP over the contentious legislations only to return a few months later. Rajesh Nagar The 55-year-old Tigaon MLA, who is seen to be close to both Khattar and Saini, first contested the seat in 2014 but lost. However, five years later, he won the seat. Gaurav Gautam The Palwal MLA defeated Congress stalwart Karan Singh Dalal in the recent polls. Dalal, a five-time MLA who is close to Congress leader and former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, had represented the seat from 1991 to 2019. Gautam has become the MLA for the first time.
