Former Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Monday was appointed as the Power Minister in Modi 3.0. In addition to this role, Khattar has also been assigned Housing and Urban Affairs in the new Cabinet.

Khattar, 70, served as Haryana Chief Minister until March 12, this year when he was succeeded by Nayab Singh Saini. He replaces RK Singh as Power Minister who lost elections from Arrah in Bihar.

Khattar had contested from the Karnal constituency in the Lok Sabha elections and defeated Divyanshu Budhiraja of the Congress. He had secured a victory with a substantial margin of 2,32,577 votes. Khattar is considered close to PM Modi with whom he worked in the BJP during the 1990s. Khattar, a bachelor, worked for almost 40 years as an RSS pracharak.

Of the five Lok Sabha seats which the BJP won this time, three winning candidates have got berths in the cabinet. Besides Khattar, the other two are BJP veterans Rao Inderjit Singh and Krishan Pal Gurjar, who have also served as Union ministers in Modi's first and second tenure at the Centre.

In the Union Cabinet, Rao Inderjit Singh has been given the portfolio of Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation; Ministry of Planning; and Ministry of Culture.  Gurgaon MP Rao Inderjit Singh is a stalwart from southern Haryana and has been a representative from the region's predominant Ahir community. Having been elected as Lok Sabha MP for the sixth term now, his third as a BJP member, Singh over the years has enjoyed unflinching support of Ahirs. Singh retained the Gurgaon seat in the recently concluded general elections after defeating his nearest rival Raj Babbar of the Congress by a margin of more than 75,000 votes.

Another senior BJP leader Krishan Pal Gurjar has been given the portfolio of Minister of State in the Ministry of Cooperation.  From Faridabad, Gurjar retained his seat defeating Congress' Mahender Pratap Singh by a margin of 1,72,914 votes. He has served as Minister of State for Power and Heavy Industries, Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, Social Justice and Empowerment during the Modi government's previous two terms.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had won all the 10 seats in the state, but in the recently held elections, Congress wrested five seats. Assembly polls in Haryana are due to be held in October.