Haryana: Nayab Singh Saini stakes claim to form govt, to take oath as CM soon

Nayab Singh Saini, an MLA from Haryana's Kurukshetra, met Governor Bandaru Dattatreya on Tuesday to formally stake claim to form the government in the state, replacing his predecessor, senior BJP leader Manohar Lal Khattar. Saini met the Governor on Tuesday along with Manohar Lal Khattar.

An influential figure within the OBC, or Other Backward Classes, community, Nayab Saini is the BJP's Lok Sabha MP from Kurukshetra and was appointed the party's state boss in October last year. He is also a close confidante of Khattar, whose second (consecutive) term ends this year. "Continuous good governance will continue in Haryana under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji," Saini said in a post on X.

In the 90-member Haryana Assembly, the BJP has 41 MLAs. It also enjoys the support of 5 independent MLAs and the Haryana Lokhit Party MLA Gopal Kanda. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had won all 10 parliamentary seats while JJP, which had contested the elections in alliance with AAP, could not put up a fight on 7 seats it contested.

Kurukshetra MP Nayab Singh Saini, was appointed Haryana BJP state president in October last year. Nayab Singh Saini won the Kurukshetra constituency in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections by more than 3.83 lakh votes over his nearest challenger, Nirmal Singh of the Indian National Congress (INC). Saini, who was elected MLA for the first time in 2014 and has since served as a minister, is regarded as Manohar Lal Khattar's confidante. The Saini caste accounts for around 8 per cent of the Haryana population, with a substantial presence in pockets of Kurukshetra, Yamunanagar, Ambala, Hisar, and Rewari districts which will have significant impact on Lok Sabha election.

Saini's involvement with the BJP began in 1996, when he joined the Haryana BJP's organisational structure, serving alongside the state general secretary until 2000. He rose through the ranks to become the district general secretary of the BJP Youth Wing in Ambala in 2002, followed by his appointment as district president in 2005. Earlier, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Tuesday resigned from the state Chief Minister hours after the BJP alliance with the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) broke. The JJP led by Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala had 10 MLAs in the Haryana Assembly. Manohar Lal Khattar submitted his resignation letter to Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya.