Chandigarh: Nayab Saini who was unanimously elected as the leader of the Haryana BJP legislature party on Wednesday, was set to be sworn in as chief minister of the state for the second term on Thursday.
Saini, 54, was elected by the newly elected 48 legislators in a meeting attended by by Union home minister Amit Shah and Madhya Pradesh chief minister Mohan Yadav as central observers, besides several senior leaders including Union power minister and former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and BJP state election in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan.
Speaking on the occasion, Shah who declared Saini as the BJP legislature party leader said that there was only one proposal moved by Narwana MLA Krishan Bedi which was seconded by Ambala Cantt MLA Anil Vij. The move was backed by all the MLAs.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah tweets, "After Nayab Singh Saini was elected as the leader of the BJP Legislative Party, the letter of support of the MLAs was submitted to the Governor of Haryana Bandaru Dattatreya regarding forming the government" pic.twitter.com/CTTdp2phCn
— IANS (@ians_india) October 16, 2024
Pertinently, Saini, the OBC face of the state BJP, had also been declared as the party’s chief ministerial candidate in the run-up to the October 5 assembly elections with an eye on the non-Jats vote-bank, especially OBCs.
It may be recalled that Saini had replaced Manohar Lal Khattar on March 12, ahead of the June Lok Sabha election, this year. Since Khattar fought and won the Karnal Lok Sabha election and was made a Union minister, the state assembly election campaign had centred around Saini with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah presenting him as the CM face.
For record, while the saffron party scored a hat-trick with its third consecutive win with its best showing of 48 seats, despite a strong anti-incumbency wave since 2014, the main opposition Congress party could win 37 of the total 90 seats and the Indian National Lok Dal won just two seats. Three seats were won by independent candidates who also extended their support to BJP later.
A LOW-PROFILE LEADER
Born in a village of Ambala district, Saini, who comes from backward class, began his association with BJP and RSS in 1996, when he was appointed the general secretary of BJP youth wing Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morch (BJYM) in 2002 and president, three years later. Saini, who is a law graduate, lost his first assembly election from Naraingarh seat in 2009.
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However, he won the seat in 2014 and was made a minister. He later also fought the Kurukshetra Lok Sabha seat in 2019 and won; he replaced O P Dhankar in 2023 as state BJP president. However, on March 12, this year, he replaced Khattar as chief minister and fought the October assembly election under his leadership.