Chandigarh, 16 Oct. 2024: Hours after being unanimously elected as the leader of the BJP legislature party, Nayab Singh Saini met Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya at Raj Bhavan in Chandigarh on Wednesday to formally claim the mandate to form the government in the state.
Saini, 54, is set to take his oath as Haryana’s chief minister on Thursday morning at the Parade Ground in Sector 5, Panchkula, in a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and other senior party officials.
Earlier that day, Saini’s election as the leader of the Haryana BJP legislature party was confirmed during a brief meeting at the party office, Panch Kamal, in Panchkula, led by Union Minister Amit Shah and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav. Narwana MLA Krishan Kumar Bedi proposed Saini’s name, which was seconded by Ambala Cantt MLA Anil Vij, leading to unanimous support from all the MLAs present.
Saini, who succeeded Manohar Lal Khattar as chief minister in March, was the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate during the recent assembly elections. The BJP secured its third consecutive term in Haryana, winning 48 seats compared to Congress’s 37 in the 90-member assembly, as announced on October 8.
The legislature party meeting was also attended by Union Power Minister and former Chief Minister Khattar, BJP Haryana election in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan, and other senior party leaders.
Born on January 25, 1970, in Mirzapur Majra village, Ambala district, Saini is a leader from a backward class with a modest profile. His association with the BJP and its ideological parent, the RSS, began in 1996. An arts graduate from BR Ambedkar Bihar University in Muzaffarpur, he later earned his LLB from Chaudhary Charan Singh University in Meerut.
Saini first served as the general secretary of the BJP’s Yuva Morcha in 2002 and became its president by 2005. After a setback in the 2009 elections in his home constituency of Naraingarh, he rebounded in 2014, securing 39.76% of the votes as the BJP returned to power in Haryana. Saini served as a minister of state in Khattar’s cabinet from 2014 to 2019 before being elected as the MP for Kurukshetra in 2019.
On October 27, 2023, he took over as the Haryana BJP president from influential Jat leader Om Prakash Dhankar. In a surprising political maneuver, Saini was selected to replace his mentor Khattar as chief minister on March 12 this year, following the party’s decision to sever ties with its alliance partner, the Jannayak Janta Party, in a bid to counter anti-incumbency and achieve a historic third victory in the state.
