Nearly three weeks after taking oath, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday gave shape to his council of ministers by inducting 10 new members including one from ally JJP and an independent.
Khattar and Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala took oath on October 27 but no other member was sworn in over the next 17 days.
In the portfolios announced hours later, Khattar kept Town and Country Planning, Housing, Information Technology and General Administration, but shed Home which he held in his previous government.
Home has gone to six-time MLA Anil Vij, who is also put in charge of Urban Local Bodies, Health, Medical Education and Research, Ayush, Technical Education and Science and Technology.
The induction Thursday of six cabinet-rank and four ministers of state now takes the strength of the ministry to 12, leaving room for two more in any future expansion. Altogether, the state with a 90-member assembly can have 14 ministers.
Haryana Governor Satyadeo Narain Arya administered the oath to new ministers at a ceremony on the lawns of the Raj Bhawan here.
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Among the 10 new ministers, eight are from Khattar's Bharatiya Janata Party and one from Chautala's Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), besides an independent. Seven independents are supporting the BJP-JJP government.
Former Speaker Kanwar Pal Gujjar will be the new Education Minister. He has also been allocated Forests, Tourism, Parliamentary Affairs and Hospitality departments.
Mool Chand Sharma gets the key Transport Department, besides Mines and Geology, Skill Development and Industrial Training, and Art and Cultural Affairs.
J P Dalal has been given Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare departments. He also gets Animal Husbandry and Dairy, Fisheries, Law and Legislative departments.
Banwari Lal, the BJP's Dalit face, gets Cooperation, Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Backward Castes departments.
Independent MLA Ranjit Singh Chautala, the estranged brother of former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala, has been given Power, Jails and New and Renewable Energy departments as a cabinet-rank minister.
Among the ministers of state, former Indian hockey captain Sandeep Singh gets the Sports and Youth Affairs (independent charge), the departments which were held by Anil Vij in the previous term.
Sandeep Singh will also head Printing and Stationery departments (independent charge).
Om Prakash Yadav has been given Social Justice and Empowerment, Sainik and Ardh Sainik Welfare Departments (independent charge).
Kamlesh Dhanda, the lone woman minister, is in charge of Women and Child Development and Archives.
Anoop Dhanak, the minister of state from the JJP camp, has been given Archaeology and Museums (independent charge) and Labour and Employment departments (attached with Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala).
A day before the cabinet expansion, Dushyant Chautala was allocated 11 portfolios including Excise and Taxation, Development and Panchayats, Revenue, Industries and Commerce, and Food and Civil Supplies.
Barring Sandeep Singh, all ministers took oath in Hindi. Donning a saffron turban, Singh said the words in Punjabi.
In the council of ministers, which now has 12 members including the chief minister, nine are from the BJP, two from the JJP and one is an independent.
Ambala, Sirsa, Bhiwani-Mahendergarh, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Karnal, Hissar and Kurukshetra parliamentary constituencies are represented in the Haryana ministry.
While Khattar and Anil Vij are from the Punjabi community, Dushyant Chautala, his grand uncle Ranjit Singh Chautala, J P Dalal and Kamlesh Dhanda are Jats. Banwari Lal is Dalit.
Anil Vij and Banwari Lal are the only two members from previous Khattar-led ministry who won the assembly polls this time. Eight ministers, including veterans Ram Bilas Sharma, O P Dhankar and Capt Abhimanyu, lost.
The BJP emerged as the single largest party with 40 seats, but failed to make it across the halfway mark on its own. Dushyant Chautala's JJP, which had broken off from the Indian National Lok Dal a few months ago, then came to its rescue with its 10 MLAs.
Faridabad MP and Union minister Krishan Pal Gurjar dismissed the opposition claim that the BJP-JJP coalition is set to fail.
They have no issue. They have to pass time for five years and they will keep on saying that this government will not last the full term. But their wish will never come true, he told reporters.
We will provide a strong and stable government, he said.
On the aspirations of those left out of the ministry, Gurjar said the party had to strike a caste and region balance, and also accommodate senior leaders.
There could not have been a better council of ministers than this, he said.
Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar, state BJP chief Subhash Barala, BJP's Haryana unit in-charge Anil Jain, Speaker Gian Chand Gupta, JJP state chief Nishan Singh also attended the ceremony.