Saini government wins trust vote in Haryana

Chandigarh: The Bharatiya Janata Party under Nayab Singh Saini, who was suddenly appointed the chief minister in a surprise move just weeks ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, won the trust vote by voice vote in the special session of the Haryana Assembly today.

In the 90-member State Assembly, the BJP with 41 MLAs was supported by six independents and one MLA of the Haryana Lokhit Party. The Opposition Congress has 30 MLAs, while the Indian National Lok Dal has one in the State Assembly.

The 10 MLAs of the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), which yesterday severed its ties with the BJP amid differences over seat-sharing for the general election ostensibly leading to the fall of Khattar, remained absent from the House during the trust vote. JJP MLAs Devender Singh Babli, Ishwar Singh, Jogi Ram Sihag, Ram Kumar Gautam,  and Ram Niwas, who were in the House, left when the trust vote was taken up. The JJP had three ministers including deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala in the 14-member Khattar cabinet. Khattar claimed that JJP would contest the coming Lok Sabha polls on its own.

Saini, who belongs to the Other Backward Class (OBC), is the state BJP president and a Member of Parliament from Kurukshetra. He replaced Manohar Lal Khattar as the 11th CM of Haryana after Khattar and his Council of Ministers resigned yesterday. Following his exit as CM, Khattar has been given the party ticket to contest from Karnal in the coming Lok Sabha elections. He has vacated his Karnal Assembly seat.

Saini along with five cabinet ministers Banwari Lal, Jai Parkash Dalal, Kanwar Pal, Mool Chand, Banwari Lal, Jai Parkash Dalal (all from the BJP), and Ranjit Singh (Independent), were administered the oath of office and secrecy by Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya at a Raj Bhawan ceremony.

Incidentally, Saini was considered a close confidante of Khattar and after assuming office, he said he would continue the good work done by Khattar in the last nine years as CM of the state. Khattar was present during his swearing-in ceremony and hinted then that he would be given some important responsibility by the BJP soon.

Saini’s Bihar connection

Saini was born in the small village of Mizapur Majra in Ambala on 25 January 1970 in a Saini family. He attended B. R. Ambedkar Bihar University in Muzaffarpur and Ch. Charan Singh University in Meerut for gaining BA and LLB degrees. In his political career, he contested the Assembly election in the Naraingarh constituency in 2010 but was defeated by Ramkishan Gurjar, registering 3,028 votes of the 116,039 total votes polled. In 2014, he won the election by 24,361 votes. He was a state minister of the Haryana Government. In 2019, he was elected as a Member of Parliament from Kurukshetra.

– global bihari bureau