Manohar Lal Khattar out, Nayab Singh Saini in: What’s happening in Haryana?

Haryana saw a chief minister resign and a new one rise to power all within a few hours. On Tuesday morning, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar resigned along with his ministers after a split in the BJP-JJP (Jannayak Janta Party) alliance.

Shortly afterwards, it was announced that BJP state president and MP from Kurukshetra Nayab Singh Saini would take oath as the Haryana chief minister and that there would be no JJP representative in the new Haryana Cabinet.

If you are confused about all that happened and what went wrong between Manohar Lal Khattar and Dushyant Chautala, here’s our explainer to guide you through all the political twists and turns taking place in the state.

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Khattar out

On Tuesday morning, Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar delivered a bombshell when he and his Cabinet ministers submitted their resignations to Haryana governor Bandaru Dattatreya. The action came as BJP’s alliance in the state fell through with Dushyant Singh Chautala’s JJP.

But what led to the split in the alliance, which was formed in 2019 post the elections when the BJP didn’t get a majority in the 2019 Haryana Assembly polls?

The BJP-JJP alliance has been under strain over seat-sharing talks for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, with the BJP stalling the JJP’s demand for two of the 10 constituencies in Haryana. According to News18, the two seats in question were Hisar and Bhiwani-Mahendragarh. The JJP wanted these two seats, claiming they have a strong base there. Incidentally, Chautala was a MP from Hisar in 2014, while Dushyant’s father and JJP supremo, Ajay Chautala, was MP from Bhiwani in 1999.

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However, the BJP was not interested in giving any Lok Sabha seats as it felt it was in a strong position in both seats. Additionally, a BJP source was quoted as telling News18 that they were willing to offer JJP another seat, such as Kurukshetra, but the alliance partner was adamant.

It’s important to note that the sitting BJP MP from Hisar, Brijendra Singh, quit the party just two days ago and joined the Congress. On his decision, he had then said that the dynamics of Haryana revolved widely around ‘ kisan ’ (farmer), ‘jawan’ (solider), and ‘khiladi’ (sportsperson). But the interest of all these sections was widely overlooked under the BJP regime, he said.

While the seat-sharing may be the primary trigger for the alliance to fall through, sources told The Wire that the BJP Haryana cadre was also discontent with the JJP. There’s also speculation that the split in the alliance and Khattar’s exit was to neutralise the anti-incumbency feeling and also split the dominant Jat votes by leaving the JJP on its own and let it compete with the Congress for the same votes.

Rumours of the alliance breaking up had also surfaced last year in June, but both partners had remained mum then.

Rise of Nayab Singh Saini

With Khattar’s exit, the position of chief minister fell vacant and speculation began on who would occupy the top post. Initially, rumours swirled that Khattar would return as CM, but later the names of Nayab Singh Saini and Sanjay Bhatia began to circulate.

Putting an end to the speculation, the BJP said that Nayab Singh Saini would be the new chief minister of the state and his swearing-in would take place at 5 pm.

Currently, the MP from Kurukshetra, Saini hails from the OBC community and was appointed as the state president of Haryana BJP in October last year. Notably, he’s also considered a close confidante of former CM Khattar.

Saini has worked long in the BJP; his political journey began with the party in 1996 and he progressed through the ranks to assume the role of district general secretary of the BJP Youth Wing in Ambala in 2002.

Later, in 2014, he was elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly from the Narayangarh constituency and even became a minister in the Haryana government in 2016. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, he defeated Nirmal Singh of the Congress from the Kurukshetra constituency with a margin of over 3.83 lakh votes.

Moreover, the Saini caste in Haryana is of significance. It makes up eight per cent of the Haryana population.

Uncertain times for Chautala

The split in the BJP-JJP alliance is not the only problem for Dushyant Singh Chautala, who was the former deputy chief minister of the state. It seems that members of his party are all set to make a switch to the BJP following the split in the partnership.

Shortly after the resignation of Khattar and his Cabinet, Chautala called a meeting of all 10 MLAs and other senior leaders of the party in New Delhi to discuss the party’s future strategy in the wake of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. While his mother and Bhadra MLA Naina Chautala, Uklana MLA Anoop Dhanak, Narwana MLA Ram Niwas, and Shahbad MLA Ram Karan have made their way to the Capital for the talks, five others are yet to even confirm their attendance at the meet, fuelling rumours that they would be making the jump to the BJP.

The five MLAs who haven’t confirmed the attendance at the meet are Narnaund MLA Ram Kumar Gautam, Barwala MLA Jogi Ram Sihag, Guhla MLA Ishwar Singh and Julana MLA Amarjeet Dhanda. Moreover, the Indian Express reported Dushyant’s confidante Devender Singh Babli will also not attend the meet, raising questions about the party’s situation.

Shortly after Khattar’s resignation, JJP spokesperson Arvind Bharadwaj said, “We will issue an official statement soon. The JJP is all set to contest all 10 seats and 90 Assembly seats.”

Numbers game in Haryana Assembly

In the 90-member Haryana Assembly, the majority mark is 46. As of today, the BJP has 41 MLAs in the House, while the JJP has 10 and the Congress has 30. Seven are Independents, while there is one MLA each from the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and the Haryana Lokhit Party (HLP).

And now it seems that the BJP has got its support from five Independents, including HLP’s lone MLA, Gopal Kanda.

It’s left to be seen how this dissolution of the alliance will play out in the upcoming Lok Sabha as well as Assembly elections where it is a known fact that the Jat vote plays a pivotal role.

With inputs from agencies