Haryana special assembly session today; newly elected CM Saini to prove majority in house

Chandigarh: Amid political turmoil, the Haryana Assembly is set to hold a special session today where the newly elected Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini will prove his majority in a floor test.

Nayab Singh Saini, the Lok Sabha MP from Haryana’s Kurukshetra, met Governor Bandaru Dattatreya on Tuesday to formally stake claim to form the government in the state, replacing his predecessor, senior BJP leader Manohar Lal Khattar.

He took oath as the Haryana CM at a swearing-in ceremony in Raj Bhawan, Chandigarh.

Four BJP leaders Kanwar Pal Gujjar, Jai Parkash Dalal, Moolchand Sharma, and Banwari Lal took oath as ministers in the Haryana cabinet.

Also, one independent MLA Ranjit Singh was administered oath by Governor Bandaru Dattatreya. Former Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar was also present.

The newly elected CM said that the BJP-led government in the state has the support of a total of 48 MLAs adding that the Speaker has been urged to conduct the floor test on Wednesday

“I want to thank PM Modi, party president JP Nadda, Union HM Amit Shah, and other senior leaders of the party for giving me this responsibility. We will work for the development of the state. We have asked the Speaker to conduct the floor test tomorrow at around 11 am, in the Vidhan Sabha. We have informed the Governor about the support of 48 MLAs,” CM Saini said.

#WATCH | On Floor test, Former Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij says, “…Situations keep changing, but in every situation, I have worked for the BJP. I will still do it even more than what I have done so far.” pic.twitter.com/XKmMWlOxSv

— ANI (@ANI) March 13, 2024

After the collapse of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) alliance and the subsequent resignation of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, former CM Khattar said that the demand of the JJP leaders over the Lok Sabha polls seat allocation may have led to the split of the alliance.

Manohar Lal Khattar said, “The demand of the JJP leaders over the Lok Sabha polls seat allocation may have led to the collapse of the alliance. The 10 seats in the state were won by the BJP. The JJP leaders must have talked to the central leadership. There is nothing official but they (JJP) have decided that they will fight the Lok Sabha seats separately and accordingly the decisions have been made.”

An influential figure within the OBC, or Other Backward Classes, community, Nayab Saini is the BJP’s Lok Sabha MP from Kurukshetra and was appointed the party’s state boss in October last year. He is also a close confidante of Khattar, whose second (consecutive) term ends this year.

Earlier, CM Khattar on Tuesday resigned from the state Chief Minister hours after the BJP alliance with the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) broke. The JJP led by Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala had 10 MLAs in the Haryana Assembly. Manohar Lal Khattar submitted his resignation letter to Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had won all 10 parliamentary seats while JJP, which had contested the elections in alliance with AAP, could not put up a fight on 7 seats it contested.

The BJP has 41 MLAs in the 90-member House, in which the majority mark is set at 46.