ASIT JOLLY

CHANDIGARH

Nov. 7: All the seven Ind-ependent legislators who-se support helped the Congress retain power in Haryana were duly rewa-rded with official berths in the new government after a full fortnight of battling pulls and pressures since chief minister Bhupinder Hooda was sworn in.

While four of the "pri-zed" Independents have been inducted as ministers, the remaining three were appointed chief parliamentary secretaries, all of them attached to important or lucrative ministries.

The nine-member council of ministers sworn in by governor Jagannath Pahadia on Saturday morning has six Cabinet ministers, including five senior Congressmen — Capt. Ajay Singh Yadav, Mr Randeep Singh Surjewala, Mr Mahendra Pratap Singh, Mr Param Vir Singh and Ms Geeta Bukkal — and Mr Om Prakash Jain, an Independent MLA.

Three Independents — Mr Shiv Charan Sharma, Mr Gopal Kanda and Mr Sukhbir Kataria — have been inducted as ministers of state. Notably, just two members from Mr Hooda’s previous ministry — Mr Yadan and Mr Surjewala — have been retained in the present dispensation. Several others, key amongst who is former forests and tourism minister Kiran Chaudhary have been dr-opped ostensibly after she declined the offer being made MoS.

The other big name absent from Saturday’s list is that of Ms Savitri Jindal who besides being a minister in the last Cabinet is also the mother of the billionaire industrialist and Congress member of Parliament, Mr Naveen Jindal.

While the inclusion of all seven Independents is an obvious effort to give the state government a measure of stability, Mr Hooda has left room for another four ministers in his government allowing for further bargaining with the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC), which has six legislators.

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Committee to oversee work of Hooda govt

AMIT AGNIHOTRI

NEW DELHI

Nov. 7: The Haryana coordination committee, set up by Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday, will have a twin role in overseeing the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government and controlling the main Opposition INLD.

The Congress tally dropped from 67 in 2005 to 40 in 2009, primarily due to "internal sabotage" and the concern on this count among the party high command is already showing as the formation of the coordination panel was announced on the day of the Cabinet formation.

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(Source: Asian Age)