Bharatiya Janata Party leader Nayab Singh Saini was sworn in as the chief minister of Haryana on Thursday.

Governor Bandaru Dattatreya administered the oath of office to Saini.

This is the third consecutive BJP government in the northern state.

BJP MLAs Anil Vij, Krishan Lal Panwar, Rao Narbir Singh, Mahipal Dhanda and Vipul Goel took oath as Cabinet ministers. Arvind Kumar Sharma, Krishan Bedi, Shyam Singh Rana and Ranbir Singh Gangwa were also sworn in as ministers in the state government.

The swearing-in ceremony in Panchkula town was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, several chief ministers of the National Democratic Alliance, BJP leaders and Union ministers.

Saini, who became the state’s chief minister in March, was re-elected as the leader of the BJP legislative party on Wednesday.

This came a week after the Hindutva party won the Haryana election by clinching 48 seats in the 90-member Assembly. This was an increase from the 40 seats the party had won in the 2019 polls. The Congress won 37 seats.

Saini won the Ladwa Assembly constituency.

In 2019, the BJP had retained Manohar Lal Khattar as its chief minister when it formed a coalition government with Dushyant Chautala’s Jannayak Janta Party.

However, in March, weeks ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP replaced Khattar with Saini and snapped ties with the Jannayak Janta Party.

The results of the Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir, the first in 10 years, were also announced on October 8 alongside that of Haryana. The National Conference-Congress alliance won the election.

National Conference leader Omar Abdullah was sworn in as the chief minister of the Union territory on Wednesday. He became the first person to hold the post since the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status under Article 370 of the Constitution.

Party leader Surinder Kumar Choudhary took oath as the deputy chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir.

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