Nayab Singh Saini was elected as Haryana BJP legislature party leader whose name is on the cards for a return to the state's top post as Chief Minister after a meeting held at Panchkula on Wednesday. The central BJP observers Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav had attended the meeting.
The 48 legislators elected Other Backward Class leader Saini, 54 as their leader to head the BJP's record third consecutive government in Haryana.
Saini will take the oath for the second time on Thursday amidst the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Shah, ministers and chief ministers of BJP-ruled states.
Saini's name was proposed by seven-time, senior party legislator Anil Vij and seconded by several legislators.
For the second consecutive time, Panchkula town close to the state capital Chandigarh, will witness the oath-taking ceremony of the BJP government. The oath-taking ceremony will take place on October 17 at the Dussehra ground at 11 a.m. in Sector 5. Initially, it was scheduled to be held on October 15 but owing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi being available on October 17, it was advanced, sources informed.
In 2014, Panchkula became the venue for the swearing-in of Manohar Lal Khattar, the BJP's first Chief Minister in the state, after the party won a majority with 47 seats in the 90-member Assembly. At that time also, PM Modi had attended the ceremony. The party won 40 seats in 2019 but came back to power with the support of Dushyant Chautala's Jannayak Janata Party (JJP).
In the 2024 elections, BJP took 48 seats. Congress became second largest with 37 seats with INLD getting two. Independent candidates winning three seats gave unconditional support to BJP, as did JJP, as well as Arvind Kejriwal's AAP return blank toppers.
With nearly three decades of political career behind him, Saini is a two-time Chief Minister Khattar's most trusted confidant. He had joined politics nearly 30 years ago and was elected MLA from Naraingarh in the 2014 Assembly polls. Then he was inducted into the Cabinet in 2016. Saini had replaced BJP veteran Khattar as Chief Minister in March, barely two months before the Lok Sabha elections. Eight of the 10 ministers in the outgoing Saini Cabinet suffered defeat in the recently concluded Assembly polls.
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