Manohar Lal Khattar takes charge as Power Minister
New Delhi: Former Chief Minister of Haryana Manohar Lal Khattar assumed charge as Power Minister on Tuesday.
ML Khattar has been given charge of two ministries in the Narendra Modi-led cabinet - Power and Housing and Urban Affairs Ministries.
Khattar has replaced RK Singh who lost elections from Arrah in Bihar.
In a post in Hindi on X, Manohar Lal Khattar wrote, "Took charge as Union Power Minister today. Under the successful leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Ministry of Energy will continuously work for 'Developed India'."
Manohar Lal Khattar won from Karnal defeating Congress' Divyanshu Budhiraja by a margin of 232577 votes. Khattar was the Chief Minister till March this year when the Bharatiya Janata Party suddenly chose to drop him from the post and field him for the Lok Sabha.
He was replaced by Nayab Singh Saini as the Chief Minister.
Khattar, a former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh pracharak has served as the Chief Minister for two terms from October 2014 and has been representing Karnal Legislative Assembly since 2014.
In the 2019 Vidhan Sabha elections, he defeated Congress' Tarlochan Singh by a margin of 45,188 votes. In 2014, Khattar won against Independent Candidate Jai Parkash Gupta by a margin of 63,773 votes.
Khattar was the Organizational General Secretary of the BJP in Haryana during 2000-2014 and started the publication of Bhajpa Ki Baat magazine in October 2000.
BJP-led National Democratic Alliance has won its third successive term in Lok Sabha polls. The NDA won 293 seats in the Lok Sabha polls with BJP getting 240 seats.