OP Dhankar appointed Haryana BJP; former Cabinet minister had lost election in 2019 from Badli

New Delhi: OP Dhankar, who was a cabinet minister in the BJP government in Haryana, was on Sunday appointed the president of the party’s state unit. By appointing Dhankar, the BJP has continued with a Jat face, the most dominant caste in the state. The BJP, in a statement, said party chief JP Nadda appointed Dhankar the Haryana unit head. The appointment is also seen as an attempt to balance the caste equations in the state, where politics revolves around Jats and non-Jats. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar is also a non-Jat. Dhankar will replace incumbent Subhash Barala, who was also a Jat. Both Dhankar and Barala had lost the Harayana Assembly elections held in October last year. Dhankar was a cabinet minister in the BJP government in Haryana. The appointment has been delayed by more than eight months as it was expected that a new president would be appointed after the announcement of the state Assembly results. Dhankar has also been the national president of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Kisan Morcha twice.