Nayab Singh Saini sworn in as Haryana CM; PM Modi, Amit Shah present

Nayab Saini

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Nayab Singh Saini on Thursday took oath as the chief minister of Haryana in the presence of top NDA leaders.

Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya administered the oath of office and secrecy to Saini, who became the chief minister for a second time. BJP MLAs Anil Vij, Arvind Kumar Sharma, Shyam Singh Rana, Ranbir Singh Gangwa, Shruti Choudhry, Krishan Bedi, Krishan Lal Panwar, Rao Narbir Singh, Mahipal Dhanda, Vipul Goel, Arti Singh Rao, Rajesh Nagar and Gaurav Gautam took oath as cabinet ministers in the Haryana government.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel, UP CM Yogi Adityanath, and other chief ministers and deputy chief ministers were present at the ceremony.

Just before the swearing-in ceremony, Saini visited the Valmiki Bhawan and offered prayers at a gurdwara and the Mansa Devi temple in Panchkula. The new BJP government will work towards taking Haryana forward at a rapid pace under the leadership of PM Modi, he said.

The people of Haryana have shown faith in the Modi government's policies, he stated on the recent Haryana Assembly polls result.

In the assembly elections held on October 5, the BJP won 48 of 90 seats, securing an unprecedented third term in Haryana. The Congress party meanwhile secured 37 seats.

Saini, 54, was unanimously elected as the leader of the BJP legislature party in a meeting held at the party office in Panchkula on Wednesday.

Saini, who represents the OBC community, replaced Manohar Lal Khattar as Haryana's chief minister in March. He won the Ladwa assembly constituency in Kurukshetra district in the recently concluded Assembly polls, defeating his opponent Mewa Singh of Congress by a margin of 16,054 votes.

Saini's elevation from the Haryana BJP president to the chief minister in March came at a time when the party was facing anti-incumbency following Khattar's tenure of nine-and-a-half years and attacks from a buoyant opposition on farmers' issues, unemployment, Agnipath scheme, inflation, and law and order.