Manohar Lal Khattar to take oath as Chief Minister for second term on Sunday, JJP's Dushyant Chautala named Deputy Chief Minister

CHANDIGARH: BJP leader Manohar Lal Khattar and Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) chief Dushyant Chautala will be sworn in as the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister respectively in an oath-taking ceremony to be held at 2:15 pm at Raj Bhavan on Sunday.

Khattar is all set to assume the post of Chief Minister for a second consecutive term in Haryana, this time in coalition with the 'kingmaker' party JJP. Haryana Governor Satyadeo Narain Arya on Saturday invited the BJP to form the next government in the state after the BJP staked claim to form the government with the support of the JJP.

After tendering in his resignation, which was accepted by the Governor on Saturday, Khattar said, "The Governor has accepted our proposal and invited us (to form the government)." CM designate had further said, "Tomorrow (Sunday) at 2.15 pm, oath-taking ceremony will be held at Raj Bhavan. Dushyant Chautala will take oath as Deputy CM."

The BJP-led alliance has the support of 40 BJP MLAs, 10 JJP legislators as well as seven independent MLAs, Khattar said, meaning that he has the support of 57 members in a 90-member assembly.

BJP working president JP Nadda, Union ministers and the chief ministers of Himachal Pradesh (Jai Ram Thakur), Uttarakhand (Trivendra Singh Rawat) and Uttar Pradesh (Yogi Adityanath) are likely to attend the swearing-in ceremony, according to party sources. A few BJP MPs will also attend the event at Haryana Raj Bhavan.

Ajay Chautala, Dushyant's father, who is lodged in Tihar Jail for conviction in a teacher recruitment scam, was granted furlough of two weeks on Saturday. He will also attend the oath-taking ceremony.

BJP, which won 40 seats and was six short of a majority in the 90-member Assembly, announced an alliance with the JJP led by Dushyant Chautala, the great grandson of former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal, on Friday evening.

Earlier, Khattar was unanimously elected as leader of the BJP Legislature Party at a meeting here. His name was proposed by legislator Anil Vij and seconded by the rest of the 38 legislators.

For his first term, Khattar had taken oath on October 26, 2014, in a function attended by a spectrum of political leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, LK Advani, Amit Shah, Union Ministers and Chief Ministers of several BJP-ruled states, besides Akali Dal veteran Parkash Singh Badal.