Khattar-led Haryana government set to have first cabinet expansion

The first cabinet expansion of the nine-month-old Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government in Haryana will take place on Thursday. Besides, inducting new Ministers, Chief Parliamentary Secretaries are also likely to take oath, officials said on Wednesday. [caption id=“attachment_2358360” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Manohar Lal Khattar. Image Credit: Facebook[/caption] Apart from the Chief Minister, the Khattar government has six Cabinet rank Ministers while three others are Ministers of State. At present, there is scope to accommodate four more Ministers in the Cabinet. Notably, CM Khattar and some of his senior Ministers are currently handling multiple portfolios amongst themselves. While Khattar has 17 departments with him, Ram Bilas Sharma has nine that include education and transport. Capt Abhimanyu has 13 departments that include finance, revenue, excise, planning, while O P Dhankar has five departments - agriculture, development and panchayats, irrigation, animal husbandry and dairying and fisheries. Besides Health and Sports, Anil Vij also has a few more additional departments with him. The BJP had formed government in Haryana for the first time on its own strength. Elections to the 90-member State Assembly were held in October last year and the saffron party had wrested power from the Congress. PTI