BJP’s chief ministerial face Saini files papers for Haryana polls

Chandigarh: Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, who is also BJP’s CM face, on Tuesday, filed his nomination papers from the Ladwa constituency in Kurukshetra district for the October 5 Assembly elections in Haryana.

Accompanying his wife Suman Saini, Union minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Kurukshetra MP Naveen Jindal, Saini held a roadshow before filing the papers.

Saini, in an attempt to woo the Jats, state dominating landowning community, drove a tractor during the roadshow.

A confidant Saini told the media that “voters have made up their minds to elect the BJP government for the third time”.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah at a rally in Panchkula on June 29 announced that BJP would fight the Assembly elections alone under the leadership of Chief Minister Saini, and exuded confidence the party would come back to power with full majority for its third consecutive term.

During the electioneering, Saini, who is leading it by travelling far and wide across the state, is listing out measures taken by the BJP government to compensate the farmers, the Dalits and the poor.

Countering the campaign of Congress’ ‘Haryana Maange Hisab’, he accused the Opposition of spreading lies.

Political observers say the ruling BJP, which is confident of its return to power with a majority for the third-consecutive term under the leadership of first-time Chief Minister and Other Backward Class (OBC) leader Saini, has been facing anti-incumbency and farmers’ anger.

The BJP’s main rival, the Congress, which ruled the state for a decade till 2014, has an edge over it with the support of farmers, traders and government employees.

Senior Congress leader and two-time chief minister Bhupinder Hooda is working hard to return to power amid the party’s internal ‘war of supremacy’.

Even the AAP has launched its campaign by targeting the BJP government over the issues of unemployment, law and order and the Agnipath scheme.

Contesting solo on all seats, the party launched the ‘Kejriwal Ki 5 Guarantee’ campaign, promising free electricity, free medical treatment, free education, Rs 1,000 per month to every woman and employment for the youth.