CHANDIGARH/PANCHKULA, Oct 16:
Nayab Singh Saini on Wednesday staked claim to form the next government in Haryana, hours after he was unanimously elected as the leader of the BJP legislature party in the State.
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Saini (54) will take oath as the chief minister on Thursday, his second time. In a departure from tradition, the BJP had declared that Saini would remain Chief Minister if the party returned to power in Haryana after the assembly polls.
At a meeting of newly elected Haryana BJP MLAs in Panchkula, Saini was unanimously picked as the leader of the BJP legislature party.
His name was proposed by MLA Krishan Kumar Bedi and seconded by senior leader Anil Vij, who had thrown his hat in the ring for the Chief Minister’s post despite the party backing Saini. The announcement in this regard was made by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Shah and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav attended the meeting as Central Observers of the BJP.
Union Ministers Manohar Lal Khattar, Rao Inderjit Singh and Dharmendra Pradhan and BJP leaders Biplab Deb and Mohan Lal Badoli were also present.
Later, Saini met with Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya at the Raj Bhavan in Chandigarh and staked claim to form the Government.
Three Independent MLAs who won the October 5 Assembly polls, including Savitri Jindal from Hisar, have extended their support to the BJP.
The oath ceremony in Panchkula will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Shah, BJP chief J P Nadda and the party’s top leadership, besides a galaxy of other leaders, including NDA partners.
Several Ministers are also likely to be sworn in on Thursday.
Some state BJP leaders maintained that the party’s win in Haryana will also come as a boost ahead of next month’s polls in Maharashtra and Jharkhand.
Saini, an OBC face, replaced Manohar Lal Khattar as the chief Minister of Haryana in March. Saini also served as a minister in the first term of the Khattar-led Government in Haryana (2014-2019) and contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Kurukshetra which he won.
After Khattar vacated the Karnal assembly seat in March, Saini won the seat in the bypolls in May. However, in the Haryana polls, the BJP fielded him from Ladwa in Kurukshetra and he won the seat.
The BJP this time secured an unprecedented third term in Haryana, winning 48 seats in the 90-member Assembly. The Congress won 37 seats.
During his address at the party office in Panchkula, Shah said the BJP is going to form the Government in Haryana for a record third time. “Today is an auspicious day for the BJP and the people of Haryana.”
Shah said the party MLAs unanimously gave the responsibility of the chief minister’s post to Saini.
He congratulated Saini on behalf of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party workers and credited the Modi government’s policies for the BJP’s victory in Haryana. (PTI)
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