News Brief
PM Modi and Haryana CM Nayab Singh Saini
The oath-taking ceremony of the new Bharatiya Janata Party government in Haryana will be held on 17 October in Panchkula.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, senior BJP leaders and chief ministers of some other states will be among the dignitaries who will attend the event.
The oath-taking ceremony will be held at the Dusshera ground at 10 am in Sector 5, Panchkula.
The BJP is yet to announce their Chief Minister pick. However, reports suggest that that the party will continue with Nayab Singh Saini.
Saini had replaced Manohar Lal Khattar as Haryana Chief Minister in March, and was instrumental in helping the party win the recent assembly elections.
In the recently held Haryana polls, BJP ended up with its best-ever haul of 48 seats, 11 more than the Congress. The JJP and the AAP were decimated and the INLD managed to win just two seats.
In the Haryana polls, eight of the 10 ministers in the outgoing Saini cabinet faced defeat.
The only two who managed to retain their seats were Mahipal Dhanda from Panipat Rural and Mool Chand Sharma from Ballabhgarh.
There can be a maximum of 14 ministers, including the Chief Minister in Haryana cabinet.
That leaves 13 positions, and in case BJP decides to retain Dhanda and Sharma as ministers, the party will need at least 11 new faces.
Balancing caste groups and meeting community demands when forming a government is challenging, but the BJP has managed it well before and will need to do it again in Haryana.