Nayab Singh Saini chosen for Haryana Chief Minister post

Mangalore Today News Network

Haryana, October 16, 2024: In a meeting of the Haryana BJP Legislature Party in Panchkula on Wednesday, party MLAs have endorsed the name of incumbent Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini as the leader of the group in the Assembly.

Saini will take oath as the new Haryana CM in Panchkula on Thursday, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, chief ministers of the BJP-ruled states, and leaders of the NDA attending the swearing-in ceremony. A few MLAs will also take oath as ministers along with Saini.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav attended the meeting as central observers at Panchkamal, the Panchkula-based Bharatiya Janata Party office. The senior BJP leaders are set to meet Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya to stake a claim to form the new government.

The BJP will form the government in Haryana a record third time. In the recent Assembly polls, the BJP won 48 seats for the 90-member House and all three Independent MLAs have announced their support to the party.

Ahead of the Haryana Assembly elections, the BJP had declared Saini, 54, as the party’s chief ministerial face. Saini has been elected to the Haryana Assembly from the Ladwa constituency of Kurukshetra district where he had defeated Congress’s Mewa Singh.

Saini, who is from Mirzapur Majra of Ambala district, is said to have met Manohar Lal Khattar during his days with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and become close to him. A law graduate, Saini contested the Haryana Assembly elections 2009 from Naraingarh but lost to Congress’s Ramkishan Gurjar.

In the Haryana Assembly election 2014, he threw his hat in the ring again from the Naraingarh seat and won. Khattar rewarded him with the charge of the Mines, Geology and Renewable Energy Ministry. He was later in charge of the Labour and Employment Ministry. In 2019, he ventured to the national scene, winning the Kurukshetra Lok Sabha seat by a margin of over 3.83 lakh votes.

He has borne several responsibilities in the party — from being the BJP Yuva Morcha district president (Ambala) to the BJP president in Haryana.

When Saini replaced Manohar Lal Khattar as the chief minister of Haryana in March this year, the BJP wanted a new face for a party unit battling anti-incumbency. An OBC face of the BJP, Saini seemed to have left no stone unturned as he ensured that the party returned to power for a third straight term in Haryana. The Saini government announced a slew of measures, focusing particularly on the outreach to the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Scheduled Castes (SCs) amid a perceived Jat consolidation behind the Congress.

At a rally on September 14, while appreciating Saini, PM Modi said: “Very few people can achieve this kind of popularity in such a short time. There is a reason why our chief minister has achieved it… Anyone from Haryana meets [me], praises our CM for enhancing the honour of our state. He (Saini) is a simple man. You all can see how he has risen from a backward class community and reached here, yet he maintains his simplicity and humble nature.”