Panchkula: Manohar Lal Khattar on Sunday sworn in as Haryana Chief Minister at a grand event in Panchkula, about 20 kms from Chandigarh. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior BJP leaders attended the oath-taking ceremony.
Capt. Abhimanyu, Ram Bilas Sharma, OP Dhankar, Anil Vij, Narveer Singh, Kavita Jain also sworn in as cabinet ministers for the Haryana Chief Minister.Â
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal also attended the oath-taking ceremony of Khattar at Panchkula in Haryana, about 20 km from Chandigarh. Bhupinder Singh Hooda skipped ceremony despite being invited.
This is after 15 years that the state has a non-Jat Chief Minister after having Jat Chief Ministers for three terms consecutively.
Khattar was an RSS worker from 1980 to 1994 and then joined the BJP. Sources say he is a close aide of PM Narendra Modi. Riding on the Modi wave, Khattar, a bachelor above the age of 60, was confident of winning the Karnal seat and he did by a huge margin.
Elaborate arrangements have been made for function, which in addition to the presence of top dignitaries is going to see huge rush of BJP workers.
Haryana Chief Secretary Shakuntala Jakhu and Director General of Police S N Vashisht, Panchkula’s Deputy Commissioner SS Phulia held a meeting to review the arrangements for the function.
Tight security measures have been put in place, with over 3,000 cops being deployed. Haryana BJP leaders claim that nearly 1 lakh people were expected to attend the function. Roads leading to the HUDA ground were being given a facelift.
The Prime Minister landed at the Chandigarh Airport from where he will drive down to the venue, officials said.