Nearly a month after the formation of the Himachal Pradesh government, chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Sunday expanded his Cabinet with seven MLAs sworn in as ministers. Apart from it, six MLAs have been made the chief parliamentary secretaries.
The MLAs inducted as ministers are Col (Retd.) Dhani Ram Shandil (Solan), Chander Kumar (Kangra), Harshwardhan Chauhan (Shillai), Jagat Singh Negi (Kinnaur), Rohit Thakur (Jubbal-Kotkhai), Anirudh Singh (Kasumpti) and Vikramaditya Singh (Shimla-Rural).
Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arelkar administered the oath to the ministers in a ceremony held at Rajbhavan.
Shimla district got a lion’s share in the Cabinet with three ministerial berths while the electorally significant Kangra, where the Congress won 10 out of 15 seats got only one seat.
One minister each is from Solan, Kangra, Sirmaur and Kinnaur districts.
Before the swearing in ceremony of the ministers, the chief minister administered oath to the six MLAs who have been made chief parliamentary secretaries (CPSs). The move to appoint CPSs is seen as an attempt to avoid any dissent as the cabinet lacks regional and caste balance.
The MLAs who took oath as CPSs are Sunder Singh Thakur (Kullu), Mohan Lal Brakta (Rohru), Ram Kumar Chaudhary (Doon), Ashish Butail (Palampur), Kishori Lal (Baijanth) and Sanjay Awasthi (Arki).
{{/usCountry}}The MLAs who took oath as CPSs are Sunder Singh Thakur (Kullu), Mohan Lal Brakta (Rohru), Ram Kumar Chaudhary (Doon), Ashish Butail (Palampur), Kishori Lal (Baijanth) and Sanjay Awasthi (Arki).
{{/usCountry}}The oath ceremony of the CPSs was held at the state secretariat.