NEW DELHI : Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Nayab Singh Saini was sworn in as the new chief minister of Haryana on Tuesday, hours after his predecessor Manohar Lal Khattar stepped down along with the entire cabinet, including the three members of deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala’s Jannayak Janta Party (JJP).
Apart from Saini, considered a close confidant of Khattar, BJP’s Jai Parkash Dalal, Moolchand Sharma, and Kanwar Pal Gujjar, as well as independent MLA Ranjit Singh, also took oath as ministers on Tuesday. Khattar was the chief minister of Haryana for two terms since 2014. The change in guard in Haryana came weeks ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. Haryana is also going for assembly polls this year. Khattar is speculated to contest the Lok Sabha election from his home turf Karnal.
The new chief minister Saini, who was administered the oath of office in Chandigarh by Haryana governor Bandaru Dattatreya, was elected leader of the BJP’s legislative party at its meeting held early on Tuesday. The meeting was attended by two central observers – Union agriculture minister Arjun Munda and party’s national general secretary Tarun Chugh. Saini, 54, is an OBC leader and BJP’s Lok Sabha MP from Kurukshetra. He was appointed the party’s state unit head in October last year.
The resignation, and subsequent swearing in, comes amid likely split between the BJP and JJP over the alliance’s failure to arrive at a seat-sharing formula in the state ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. The BJP had won all 10 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the 2019 national elections. The BJP and JJP came together after the 2019 assembly polls, as the BJP fell short of the majority mark in the 90-member Haryana assembly. The BJP had 41 MLAs while the Dushyant Chautala-led JJP had 10 MLAs in the assembly.
The new government will be backed by six independent MLAs in the Haryana legislative assembly. Five lawmakers from JJP were also said to switch sides but were unlikely to get cabinet berths. Chautala thanked the people of Haryana for the opportunity to serve as deputy chief minister. “Your support and cooperation for the welfare of Haryana and public works has always been energising for me. With limited time and limited numbers, we have worked day and night to protect the interests of Haryana. We have got the work of every section and every area of Haryana done in the government,” Chautala said in a post on X (formerly twitter).
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Published: 12 Mar 2024, 07:08 PM IST