Panchkula, Oct 17 (IANS): BJP's Nayab Singh Saini will take oath as the Chief Minister of Haryana on Thursday for the party’s unprecedented third term with an absolute majority in the recently concluded Assembly election.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s key allies will be in attendance.
The oath-taking ceremony will be attended by Prime Minister Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and several Union Ministers including Rajnath Singh and J. P. Nadda, who is also the BJP national president. Besides, there will be all 20 Chief Ministers of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and their deputies, a mega political gathering in the run-up to Assembly polls in Maharashtra and Jharkhand.
Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya will administer the oath of office and secrecy to Saini, a protégé of former Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, and his Council of Ministers, likely 10, with three slots that BJP is likely to keep vacant.
Elaborate security arrangements have been made for the swearing-in ceremony which will take place at Parade Ground in Sector 5 in Panchkula.
Around 50,000 people were expected to attend the function, party leaders said. A total of 14 LED screens will be installed at the venue so that people could witness the function.
Saini is yet to announce his new Cabinet, several lawmakers are also taking the oath of office, official sources told IANS.
After the oath ceremony in Panchkula, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair a half-day conclave, the first of its kind after many years, in Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana, where all Chief Ministers and Deputy Chief Ministers of the ruling NDA will attend.
The conclave will focus on covering national development issues. It will also discuss subjects like observance of Samvidhan Ka Amrut Mahotsav and the year of 50th anniversary of an attempt to murder democracy, as per BJP.
BJP currently has 13 Chief Ministers and 16 Deputy Chief Ministers, while the Chief Ministers of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Sikkim, Nagaland, and Meghalaya are from its allies.
BJP won the Assembly elections for the third straight time fighting anti-incumbency, winning 48 seats in the 90-seat Assembly of Haryana. The Congress won 37 seats, while the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) secured two and three Independents were elected. All three have extended unconditional support to the government.
Hours after being unanimously elected as the leader of BJP, Saini, accompanied by Home Minister Shah, on Wednesday called on Governor Dattatreya at Raj Bhawan in Chandigarh and staked claim to form the government.
Haryana BJP chief Mohan Lal Badoli said that the oath-taking function would also include the Opposition leaders, besides “progressive farmers”, “Lakhpati Didis” and people from various social organisations. He said Valmiki Jayanti falls on October 17, the day when the new government would be sworn-in.
Who is Nayab Singh Saini?
Soft-spoken second-time BJP legislator Saini (54) was retained as the Chief Minister of Haryana for his second consecutive term.
Saini was unanimously elected as the leader of the BJP legislature party in a Panchkula meeting attended by Home Minister Shah and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav as the party's central observers.
Addressing the legislators, Shah said that Haryana has created history by proving the political pundits of the country wrong and forming a BJP government for the third consecutive time.
“Nayab Singh Saini has been elected as leader of the legislative party. We will again form the government in Haryana, the double-engine government will be here for 15 years. Under the leadership of Manohar Lal Khattar, many development works were carried out in Haryana,” he said.
After being chosen as leader of the BJP legislative party, Saini said: “The people of Haryana have placed their faith in the policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and formed the BJP government for the third time and the people have resolved to carry forward the vision of Prime Minister Modi to make India developed by 2047.”
Saini’s nomination as the legislature party leader was proposed by MLAs Krishan Kumar Bedi and Anil Vij.
Firm with an election promise with the youth, caretaker Chief Minister Saini said: “I had announced that the results of the recruitment exam of 24,000 youths will be declared first and after that, I will take oath. Fulfilling that promise, the results will be declared tomorrow (Thursday). The BJP does what it says.”
Saini in his previous stint was appointed as the Chief Minister on March 12, 2024, after Manohar Lal Khattar and the entire Cabinet, comprising three members of Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala’s Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) -- stepped down.
With a strong hold over the Other Backward Class (OBC) community which comprises eight per cent, Saini was declared as the chief ministerial face at a public rally in Panchkula on June 29 by Union Minister Shah.
The Saini caste has a sizeable population in Kurukshetra, Yamunanagar, Ambala, Hisar and Rewari districts.
Saini’s elevation to the top post just ahead of the Assembly polls was aimed at consolidating the non-Jat and OBC votes. Also, it was an attempt to counter anti-incumbency against Khattar, who has been at the helm since 2014.
In the caste politics of Haryana, the Jat -- a landowning community that accounts for around 25 per cent of the state’s population -- support is largely divided among the Congress, the Jannayak Janata Party and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD).
BJP insiders say apart from being an OBC and close to Khattar, old association with the RSS also helped Saini to retain the helm.
Caretaker Chief Minister Saini won the Ladwa Assembly seat by 16,054 votes, defeating his nearest rival and Congress candidate Mewa Singh.
The party’s seven-time lawmaker, Anil Vij, the seniormost in the party, said all the MLAs have unanimously elected Saini as the leader of the BJP legislative Party. “I have fulfilled all the responsibilities entrusted to me by the party,” Vij told the media.
Born in 1970, Saini entered politics almost 30 years ago. He was elected as an MLA from Narayangarh in the 2014 Assembly polls. He was inducted into the Cabinet in 2016.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Saini contested and won from the Kurukshetra constituency, defeating Congress's Nirmal Singh by a huge margin.