A day after Cabinet expansion, the Manohar lal Khattar Government in Haryana on Saturday effected a major redistribution of portfolios, giving key ministries of Industries and Environment to the newly inducted Cabinet Minister Vipul Goel while the Chief Minister continued to keep key portfolios with him.
Capt. Abhimanyu lost the prestigious departments of Industries and Environment to Vipul Goel while OP Dhankar has lost prominent department of Irrigation and Water Resources to the Chief Minister.
Finance Minister Capt Abhimanyu emerged as a major loser in the reshuffle exercise even as Khattar himself shed some of the burden of departments he was carrying. While Khattar shed five departments, three key departments have been taken away from Capt Abhimanyu.
The Chief Minister, who was holding the portfolios of 14 departments, will now head 10 departments. Manohar lal has kept key departments of Home, Power, Personnel & Training, Town and Country Planning, Electronics & Information Technology among others with him and five of his departments including Jails, Mines and Geology, Architecture, Science & Technology, Information & Public Relations have been distributed among various ministers.
A day before, Manohar lal had inducted one Cabinet Minister, two Ministers of State (with independent charge and dropped two MoS from his Cabinet.
Among the major changes, Ram Bilas Sharma’s Civil Aviation has been given to Rao Narbir, Kavita Jain’s Social Justice and Empowerment goes to MoS Krishan Kumar Bedi, Capt. Abhimanyu’s labour and Employment to Nayab Saini.
Narbir Singh had to cede Industrial Training to new Cabinet Minister Vipul Goel, MlA from Faridabad, who would now hold three key portfolios in Manohar lal Cabinet.
The departments of two MoS namely Ghanshyam Saraf and Bikram Singh Thekedar, who were dropped from Haryana Cabinet have been distributed among the new inductees.
The newly inducted MoS, Manish Kumar Grover has been given Cooperation (independent charge), Printing & Stationary (independent charge) and Urban local Bodies (attached with UlB Minister) while the other new MoS Banwari lal is given portfolios of Public Health Engineering (independent charge) and Renewable Energy (attached with CM).
The Cabinet reshuffle also saw Chief Minister’s Science & Technology portfolio going to senior minister Anil Vij, Jail department being shifted to Krishan lal Panwar, Mines and Geology to OP Dhankar, Architecture to Narbir Singh and Information, Public Relation and languages to Kavita Jain.
The previous portfolios of Anil Vij and Krishan lal Panwar have been kept untouched and both of them have been given additional responsibilities.
Capt Abhimanyu, who was holding the charge of 12 departments, will now head 8 departments including Finance, Revenue and Disaster Management, Excise and Taxation, Planning, law and legislature, Institutional Finance and Credit Control, Consolidation and Rehabilitation.
Ram Bilas Sharma continued to hold the prominent portfolios of Education and Tourism while Anil Vij would continue with Health and Sports Ministry.
After Friday’ Cabinet expansion, the Khattar government now has 14 ministers including the Chief Minister. Apart from Chief Minister, there are eight Cabinet Ministers, two Ministers of State with independent charge and three Ministers of State.
Politically, the cabinet expansion and reshuffle is a strong message from the Chief Minister that the performance of individual ministers is being closely monitored as two MoS were dropped from his Cabinet.
This was the second expansion of Manohar lal Cabinet following first expansion carried out in July last. The Government had also appointed four legislators as Chief Parliamentary Secretary last year.
The BJP came to power in Haryana for the first time after winning 47 seats in the 90-member assembly in the polls held in October 2014. The 62-year-old Manohar lal Khattar, a first-time MlA from Karnal and a non-Jat leader was administered the oath along with nine ministers by Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki in 2014.
At that time, the other six cabinet ministers were Ram Bilas Sharma, Capt. Abhimanyu, Om Parkash Dhankar, Anil Vij, Kavita Jain and Narbir Singh.
Kavita Jain is the lone woman minister in the 14-member Ministry now.