CHANDIGARH: Nayab Singh Saini was on Tuesday sworn in as the new Haryana chief minister, hours after the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) walked out of the ruling coalition led by BJP’s Manohar Lal Khattar.
It gave the BJP a shot at spring cleaning ahead of the general elections, as the uncharismatic Khattar, 69, made way for his loyalist Saini, 54, who is an OBC leader.
Saini claims he has the support of seven Independents. “We have asked the Speaker to conduct the floor test tomorrow as we have support of 48 MLAs,’’ he said.
Saini represents Kurukshetra in Parliament and was named the Haryana BJP president in October last year. His appointment as CM is meant to deflect anti-incumbency against Khattar, who ruled Haryana for nine-and-a-half years.
Sainis constitute 8% of Haryana’s population. The community is influential in the state’s north, including Ambala, Kurukshetra, and Hisar districts.
The coalition collapsed as the JJP chief and outgoing deputy CM Dushyant Chautala demanded two of Haryana’s 10 Lok Sabha seats. The constituencies his party eyed were Hisar and Bhiwani-Mahendragarh. Dushyant had won the Hisar LS seat in 2014. Just two days ago, BJP’s Hisar MP Brijendra Singh resigned fearing his seat would go to the JJP.
The JJP is a breakaway faction of the Indian National Lok Dal. It appears to be in trouble as five JJP MLAs stayed away from a legislative party meeting in Delhi. These lawmakers are likely to form a breakaway group and could support BJP.
As for Khattar, he could get a LS ticket from Karnal.