Haryana Assembly session to begin on Monday

Chandigarh, Nov 2: The three-day session of the BJP-led Haryana Assembly will commence on Monday, with all the newly-elected 90 MLAs taking oath on the first day.

For the first time BJP formed the government on its own after elections to the 90-member assembly were held last month, in which the party registered win on 47 seats. It will also be for the first time that Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar will enter a legislative assembly as an elected member.

The 60-year-old former RSS leader is a first-time MLA from Karnal. Like Khattar, there are a number of MLAs in his party who are first-time legislators.

Former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who retained his Garhi Sampla-Kiloi seat in Rohtak district and remained a two-time CM, will be seated on the opposition benches, alongside Congress and Indian National Lok Dal.

The short session of the assembly will witness the 90 MLAs taking the oath, the Governor's address and other business that the House may take up during its meet.

All eyes will be on the treasury benches, in particular Khattar, whose performance will be watched by one and all. Meanwhile, Kaithal MLA and former Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala is among the frontrunners to be picked up as leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP), party sources said.

The main opposition INLD has already picked up its Ellenabad MLA, Abhay Singh Chautala as its leader in the Assembly. Haryana was formed as a separate State on November 1, 1966. In the October 15 assembly polls, many stalwarts of the INLD lost at the hustings including its state unit chief Ashok Arora.

The BJP bagged 47 seats while the remaining seats went to INLD (19) Congress (15), HJC-BL two, SAD and BSP one each and Independents five.

INLD President and former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala and his son and senior leader Ajay Singh Chautala are in jail in the JBT teachers recruitment scam.

Earlier, BJP had won maximum 16 seats in 1987 out of 20 it contested. The party in the last hustings in 2009 was able to win just four seats.

PTI