CHANDIGARH: The 54-year-old Nayab Singh Saini is a low-profile politician belonging to the Other Backward Classes (OBC). He has risen through the ranks in the party to become the Chief Minister of Haryana.
A law graduate, Saini, considered an aide of Manohar Lal Khattar, was born on January 25, 1970, at a village in Ambala. He did his graduation from BR Ambedkar University in July 1996 and then LLB from Choudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut (UP) in 2010.
Saini started his career in the saffron party’s organisational framework in 1996, and in 2002 he became the general secretary of the Amabla district youth wing. He also held the position of district president and general secretary of the state BJP Kisan Morcha.
Sanini was elected MLA from the Naraingarh assembly segment in 2014 when the BJP came to power in the state for the first time. Saini was also a minister in the Khattar cabinet between 2014 and 2019. He was a legislator when he fought the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 and won from Kurukshetra.
The BJP in October appointed Saini as its Haryana unit president in place of Om Prakash Dhankar. His appointment was seen as the party’s move to strengthen its hold over the OBC community and non-Jats.
The support of Jats, who are the most populous community in the state, is largely seen to be divided among the Congress, Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) and the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD).
The announcement to pick Saini as Haryana’s next CM was sudden, but had the same element of surprise as in 2014 when the party named Khattar to the post in 2014. At that time, Khattar was picked up ignoring senior leaders like Ram Bilas Sharma, Anil Vij, Capt Abhimanyu and O P Dhankar.
The population of the Saini community is around 8% in Haryana. The community wields influence in many of Haryana’s northern districts, including Ambala, Kurukshetra and Hisar, besides in some other districts. Haryana assembly polls are due in October.
