CHANDIGARH: Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections and assembly election in the state, BJP's Haryana unit president and MP from Kurukshetra Nayab Singh Saini, who hails from the OBC community, has been announced as the new Chief Minister of Haryana, replacing Manohar Lal Khattar. The latter resigned earlier today along with his cabinet of ministers, leading to a collapse of their alliance with Dushyant Chautala-led Jannayak Janata Party (JJP).
Saini, 54, will be sworn in as CM along with a new cabinet in a ceremony at 5 pm today. He met the Haryana Governor at noon and staked claim to form government. He was selected after a meeting of the BJP's legislative party, which was attended by Agriculture Minister Arjun Munda and National General Secretary Tarun Chugh.
The developments follow reports that the JJP was unhappy with the number of seats offered by the BJP in the upcoming elections. They wanted two seats whereas BJP was willing to give only 1, as per reports. The BJP and JJP were part of the state's ruling alliance, with 14 cabinet ministers including Manohar Lal Khattar, including three from the JJP.
The BJP claims it still has the majority in the 90-member Assembly, with 41 BJP MLAs and six independent legislators supporting it.
Meanwhile, Nayan Pal Rawat, an independent MLA from the Prithla constituency, said that Manohar Lal Khattar will not step down as the chief minister of Haryana as he enjoys the support of 48 MLAs. He said, there was no need for the support of Dushyant Chautala's JJP any more as the saffron party has gotten the support of six independent MLAs and the sole MLA of the Haryana Lokhit Party. Rawat said the BJP felt the need to break out of the alliance to win the maximum number of seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Incidentally, five JJP MLAs skipped a meeting Dushyant called in Delhi today post the collapse of the ruling alliance. They are likely to join the saffron party.
Last week, BJP's Hisar MP Brijendra Singh had joined the Congress. "I have resigned from BJP's primary membership due to compelling political reasons," he had said.
Who is Saini? Points to know
Saini is presently Member of Parliament from Kurukshetra and was appointed as the Haryana BJP President in October last year. As soon as Saini's name was proposed, seniormost party MLA and outgoing home minister Anil Vij walked out of the meeting. He is unlikely to come back as a minister in the new cabinet.
Saini was chosen unanimously as the leader of the party's legislature group.
In 1996, Saini started his political career in the saffron party’s organizational unit, and in 2002, he was made the general secretary of Ambala district youth wing of BJP and in 2005, he was named the district president. In 2009, he was made state general secretary of BJP Kisan Morcha. He was made district president of Ambala BJP in 2012. In 2014, he was elected as MLA from Narayangarh, and in 2016, he was made a minister. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Saini won the Kurukshetra parliamentary seat, defeating Nirmal Singh of Congress with a margin of over 3.83 lakh votes.
Saini is considered a confidante of outgoing CM Manohar Lal Khattar. Following his triumph in the 2014 Assembly elections from the Karnal constituency, Khattar became Haryana's first chief minister from the BJP.
Congress MP Deepender Singh Hooda said the BJP has accepted "defeat before defeat" in Haryana, as the state sees political ups and downs ahead of the Lok Sabha polls and state polls this year. "Today, the anti-people (Manohar Lal) Khattar-Dushyant (Chautala) government of Haryana has been morally defeated," he wrote in Hindi on X.
Hooda also said today that the BJP-JJP alliance was made in 2019 out of "selfishness", and another agreement has been reached "out of the same motive."
The BJP formed the government after the 2019 Haryana Legislative Assembly election where it had won all 10 Lok Sabha seats in the state. However, they fell short of the majority mark of 46 seats. Subsequently, the BJP formed an alliance with the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), which had won 10 seats, and 7 Independents, to form the government. As part of the agreement, Dushyant Chautala of the JJP was sworn in as the deputy chief minister.
Khattar resigns, BJP-JJP alliance snaps
Khattar and his cabinet submitted their resignations to Governor Bandaru Dattatreya this morning. Ties between the BJP and Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala-led-Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) snapped following their failure to reach a seat-sharing agreement in the state for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Sources in the BJP said that they are in favour of going solo in the upcoming Lok Sabha and assembly elections. The Haryana government sailed through the no-confidence motion during the last assembly session. As per rules, a six-month gap is there for the next no-confidence motion to be brought in.
Meanwhile, Independent legislator Dharampal Gonder said that the Independent MLAs were supporting the BJP-led government. Sometime back, Khattar had held a meeting with Independent MLAs to figure out which way they were leaning.
As for the Congress and the AAP - both members of the INDIA opposition bloc - they have agreed to a seat-share deal under which the former will fight nine seats and AAP will contest from Kurukshetra.
Setback to Dy CM Dushyant Chautala
Tuesday's development is a major setback to Haryana Deputy Chief Minister and JJP chief Dushyant Chautala. The JJP is a breakaway faction of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), which was formed in 2019, ahead of the assembly elections that year.
A meeting held on Monday between JJP chief Chautala and BJP president JP Nadda was inconclusive as Dushyant wanted two seats - Hisar and Bhiwani–Mahendragarh - in the parliamentary polls. The BJP did not accept his demand and decided to field its candidates on all 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana. Dushyant had won from Hisar Lok Sabha seat in 2014.
The JJP however made it clear that they would contest on two seats in Lok Sabha or else they would go all alone. Interestingly, just two days ago, the saffron party’s Hisar MP Brijendra Singh resigned from the party as he anticipated that his seat may go to the JJP. He then joined the Congress.
Moreover, five JJP MLAs - Jogi Ram Sihag, Ram Kumar Gautam, Ishwar Singh, Ramniwas and Devinder Babli - skipped a meeting Dushyant called in Delhi today post the collapse of the ruling alliance. They are likely to join the saffron party.
Additionally, key officials posted in departments headed by Dushyant Chautala were transfered which was also seen as a move to cut him off.
This is not the first time that the BJP-JJP coalition has been strained. Earlier, the JJP was worried over the fallout of the farmer protests on its Jat vote bank.
(With PTI inputs)