BJP stalwart ML Khattar is replaced by OBC politician Nayab Singh Saini, a low-key figure

Although the announcement of Nayab Singh Saini as the next chief minister of Haryana was abrupt and unanticipated, it had the same element of surprise as the BJP’s 2014 nomination of Manohar Lal Khattar for the position.

At a conference held here on Tuesday, Saini, a low-key OBC politician who ascended through the ranks of the party, was overwhelmingly chosen to head the state BJP’s parliamentary group.

Saini, a close friend of Manohar Lal Khattar (69), the BJP leader whose second term as chief minister was set to expire in October, will succeed the 69-year-old.

Weeks before the Lok Sabha elections, the governing BJP made the unexpected step. In October, the Haryana Assembly elections are scheduled.

Saini, an Other Backward Classes (OBC) member, was chosen by the BJP in October to lead its Haryana branch in lieu of Om Prakash Dhankar.

The resignations of Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya received earlier on Tuesday from Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and every member of his cabinet.

When Saini was appointed leader of the state BJP in October, it was seen as an effort by the party to increase its influence among non-Jats and OBCs.

As the most numerous group in the state, Jats are often seen to be split between the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), the Congress, and the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP).

In addition to these considerations, selecting Saini to be the chief minister is also seen as a countermeasure to the anti-incumbency sentiment against the Khattar regime.

In Haryana, the Saini group comprises around 8% of the total population. In addition to a few other districts, the group is influential in several of Haryana’s northern districts, such as Kurukshetra, Hisar, and Ambala.

Khattar, a newly elected MLA from Karnal, was chosen by the Bharatiya Janata Party to be the chief minister in 2014, the year the party established its government in Haryana for the first time on its own.

Senior leaders including Ram Bilas Sharma, Anil Vij, Capt. Abhimanyu, and OP Dhankar were ignored at the moment Khattar was taken up. Similar to what happened to Khattar, Saini was chosen to replace him in the events of Tuesday.

Anil Vij, a six-term member of parliament, is the most senior minister in the departing Khattar ministry.

On January 25, 1970, Saini was born in the Ambala district’s Mirzapur Majra hamlet. Having graduated from law school, he and Khattar had been friendly since their time as RSS members.

From 2014 till 2019, Saini served as a minister in the Khattar administration. In 2019, he ran for the Lok Sabha while serving as a lawmaker.

All ten of Haryana’s Lok Sabha seats were won by the BJP in 2019, and its candidates did so by enormous majorities.

Saini’s appointment as the next chief minister was revealed during a gathering of BJP MLAs at this location, the Haryana Niwas.

Saini gained promotion within the state BJP throughout the previous thirty years, and he also served as general secretary and district president of the state BJP Kisan Morcha. In Ambala, he served as the state BJP youth wing’s district general secretary in 2002 before rising to the position of district president three years later.

When the BJP won Haryana’s assembly seat for the first time on its own in 2014, he was elected as an MLA from the Naraingarh assembly sector.

Saini had beaten Congressman Nirmal Singh, his closest opponent in the Kurukshetra constituency, in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections by a margin of 3,84,591 votes.

After incumbent MP RK Saini revolted, Saini—a minister in the Khattar cabinet—was fielded from the Kurukshetra constituency in 2019.