Chandigarh: The BJP Tuesday named OBC leader Nayab Singh Saini as Haryana’s new Chief Minister, hours after the surprise resignation of Manohar Lal Khattar from the post along with his cabinet ministers.
Soon after being elected leader of the party’s state legislature group, Saini met Governor Bandaru Dattatreya to stake a claim for forming the government in the state.
He was accompanied by Union minister Arjun Munda, BJP general secretary Tarun Chugh, Khattar and Biplab Deb, the party’s Haryana in-charge at the centre.
Saini, 54, will be sworn in as the CM later in the day, BJP leaders said. He is the party’s state unit president and the MP from Kurukshetra.
The development comes just weeks ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Khattar’s second term as chief minister was also to end in October when the assembly polls are due.
Khattar and all 13 other members of the BJP-led council of ministers submitted their resignations to the Governor as a team of the party’s central observers arrived in Chandigarh.
Shortly after the cabinet – which included three members of coalition partner Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), including deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala – stepped down, BJP MLAs headed to a meeting of the party’s legislative group.
Saini, who is considered close to Khattar, was unanimously elected as the leader of the group at the meeting in Haryana Niwas, BJP MLAs said.
Khattar was seen in a photograph presenting a bouquet to Saini. Munda and Chugh, the two central observers sent to implement the switch in Haryana, were also in the frame.
Biplab Deb and BJP’s Rajya Sabha member Subhash Barela also attended the meeting.
Saini was appointed the president of the BJP’s Haryana unit only in October with the party replacing Om Prakash Dhankar.
The move then was seen as an attempt to consolidate the BJP’s hold on the OBC community in the state. The vote of the Jats, the most populous community in the state, is mostly seen to be divided among the Congress, the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) and the Indian National Lok Dal.
There is some speculation that Khattar may be fielded as the party’s Lok Sabha candidate from Karnal.
Saini was a minister in the first Khattar cabinet. He was an MLA when he fought the Lok Sabha polls in 2019.
The switch in Haryana comes amid speculation that ruling BJP-JJP coalition was coming apart.
The BJP, which won all 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana by large margins in 2019, appeared keen to fight the upcoming parliamentary polls on its own. It had forged the alliance with the JJP later after falling short of the majority mark in the assembly elections.
At present, the BJP has 41 MLAs in the 90-member assembly while the JJP has 10. The ruling combine also enjoyed the support of six of the seven independents and is comfortably placed even without the JJP’s support.
The main opposition Congress has 30 MLAs and the Indian National Lok Dal and Haryana Lokhit Party have one seat each.
The JJP too called a meeting in Delhi of its leaders following the surprise development. Five of its Haryana MLAs are learnt to have skipped the meeting, indicating a possible rift in the ranks.
In a post on X, Saini thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president J P Nadda, Biplab Dev, Khattar and the party MLAs.
Emerging out of the BJP meeting at Haryana Niwas, senior leader Anil Vij, who held the Home portfolio, parried questions from reporters on what transpired inside.
“Those who have come from Delhi will tell,” he said.
Outgoing Education Minister Kanwar Pal had told reporters earlier in the morning that Khattar will be sworn in again as CM. Haryana Lokhit Party MLA Gopal Kanda also made the same prediction.
“I think he will remain the CM and he should remain,” he said.
PTI
