First session of newly elected Haryana Assembly commences

Chandigarh, Nov 3: The first session of the newly elected 13th Haryana Assembly commenced on Monday with pro tem Speaker administering oath to the 90 legislators.

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar was the first to be administered the oath by the pro tem Speaker Raghbir Singh Kadian. He was followed by the ministers, including cabinet ministers Ram Bilas Sharma and Abhimanyu, Om Parkash Dhankar, Anil Vij, Narbir Singh, Kavita Jain, and Ministers of State Bikram Singh Yadav, Krishan Kumar Bedi and Karan Dev Kamboj.

Abhimanyu took the oath in Sanskrit while others, including the Chief Minister, took it in Hindi. Being the sole agenda for the day's session, the process of administering the oath would continue till later today.

BJP which came to power in Haryana on its own, occupied the treasury benches, and Congress which had ruled the state for nine years, was seated on the opposition benches along with Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), which emerged as the largest opposition party.

Earlier last month, forty-eight years after the formation of Haryana in 1966, the state got its first BJP-led government headed by first time MLA Manohar Lal Khattar who was sworn in by Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki with nine member Council of Ministers.

60-year-old Khattar is also the first Punjabi and a non-Jat in 18 years to become the Chief Minister of the state. Khattar is the fifth non-Jat Chief Minister of the state.

Earlier, B D Sharma, Rao Birender Singh, B D Gupta and Bhajan Lal were the other non-Jat Chief Ministers of Haryana, with Bhajan Lal holding the office from 1991 to 1996.

After Bhajan Lal's exit, Bansi Lal, Om Parkash Chautala (twice) and Bhupinder Singh Hooda (twice) were the Chief Ministers of the state.

In the October 15 assembly polls, the saffron party won 47 seats while the rest were shared by INLD 19, INC 15, HJC-BL two, one each of BSP and SAD and five independents.

PTI