The country’s richest woman, Savitri Jindal, has a new designation now. She became a Minister in the Haryana Cabinet, led by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, on Tuesday. Ministerial berth is not new to Jindal as she was earlier a Minister in the 2005-09 Hooda Government. She had to pave way for independents who supported Congress come back to power in 2009 after being reduced to 40 seats in the 90 member Haryana Assembly.
Jindal is a two-time Congress MlA from Hisar assembly constituency and is the mother of business tycoon MP Naveen Jindal. She is the chairperson of the Jindal Group.
She was sworn-in Tuesday along with the other new minister, Aftab Ahmed, who is a legislator from Nuh assembly constituency in Mewat district and the only Muslim face in the Hooda Ministry. Two Ministerial slots in the Hooda Government were vacant ever since Ministers O.P.Jain and Gopal Kanda resigned in June 2011 and August 2012 respectively, after their names figured in separate criminal cases.