Nayab Singh Saini sworn in as Haryana's new chief minister

Nayab Singh Saini, Haryana`s new CM/ Pic/X

Nayab Singh Saini has sworn in as Haryana's new chief minister on Tuesday evening. Saini, an MLA from Haryana's Kurukshetra had met Governor Bandaru Dattatreya earlier in the day to form the government in the state, replacing his predecessor, senior BJP leader Manohar Lal Khattar.

On Tuesday morning, Manohar Lal Khattar resigned as Haryana's 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.

BJP leaders like Kanwar Pal, Mool Chand Sharma and independent MLA Ranjit Singh Chautala also take oath as ministers in Haryana.

The surprise move by the ruling BJP came weeks before Lok Sabha elections and Haryana Assembly elections due in October. Saini is considered a confidante of Manohar Lal Khattar.

The BJP's decision to have a second OBC leader - Nayab Singh Saini - join its rank of 12 chief ministers marks its determined push to consolidate the community's votes and blunt the opposition's attempt to weaken its support base ahead of Lok Sabha elections.

Three months after the BJP made the surprise pick of Mohan Yadav to replace another Other Backward Classes (OBC) leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan as Madhya Pradesh chief minister, the party on Tuesday chose Saini, a first-term MP and its Haryana president, to take over from Manohar Lal Khattar.

Saini's elevation as Haryana chief minister fits in with a pattern that has gathered pace in the BJP after the Congress and its allies like the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh and the RJD in Bihar began making an aggressive bid to woo the largest group of communities and politically most significant, especially in Hindi-speaking states, by pushing for a caste census.

Khattar and his cabinet ministers on Tuesday submitted their resignations to Governor Dattatreya and the development came amid speculation of cracks emerging in the state's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) coalition over seat sharing ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

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