Nayab Singh Saini takes oath as Haryana Chief Minister

Chandigarh: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Nayab Singh Saini took oath as the Haryana Chief Minister on Tuesday 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 minister 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.

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.

#WATCH | Haryana BJP president Nayab Singh Saini takes oath as the Chief Minister of Haryana, at the Raj Bhavan in Chandigarh. pic.twitter.com/ULZm5kqwLG

— ANI (@ANI) March 12, 2024

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.

Kurukshetra MP Nayab Singh Saini was appointed Haryana BJP state president in October last year. Nayab Singh Saini won the Kurukshetra constituency in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections by more than 3.83 lakh votes over his nearest challenger, Nirmal Singh of the Indian National Congress (INC).

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. The government will be backed by six independent MLAs.

Earlier, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal 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.