Haryana Assembly Polls 2024: Nayab Singh Saini — Man who saved the day for BJP

When a majority of pollsters pointed at a Congress sweep, Saini remained unfazed. “Aanth tareekh ko janta degi jawab, aur yeh Congress kahegi EVM kharab hai,” Saini had said. Turns out he was right.

New Delhi: In October last year, staring at a possible defeat and mounting anti-incumbency, the BJP appointed (then) Kurukshetra MP Nayab Singh Saini as the president of the Haryana state unit, exactly a year ahead of the assembly polls in the state, replacing OP Dhankar. A year later, with just 200 days of work under his belt, the BJP has scripted a record third term victory under his leadership. 

Saini, who hails from the OBC community, was appointed so that the BJP could seek to mobilise non-Jat votes. Before his new responsibility, Saini had also served as the national vice-president of BJP OBC Morcha. “People look at his OBC identity, but if we look back further, Saini started as a typist and data operator in the BJP in the 1990s. Only in our party can someone rise to the top,” a party leader involved in the poll process said. 

Considered a find of Manohal Lal Khattar, a man he replaced as the state’s chief minister in March this year, Saini was also the president of the Ambala district unit Yuva Morcha soon after. Saini started his electoral journey in 2009 by contesting the assembly polls unsuccessfully from Naraingarh; he lost to Congress’s Ramkishan Gurjar. Five years later, in 2014, he won the seat becoming a state minister with the mines and labour portfolios. He was fielded from the Kurukshetra seat in 2019 from where he won. 

Barely two months after he took over, the BJP registered a damp tally in the Lok Sabha polls in Haryana – winning only 5 of the state’s 10 Parliamentary seats, down from the sweep of 10 seats it had in 2019 as well as 2014. 

But the party as well as Saini’s government did not stop wooing the OBCs through developmental and welfare works. The promise of a monthly assistance of Rs 2100 to women, 2 lakh jobs and gas cylinders for Rs 500 were attractive to voters from backward classes. In addition to that, the Lakhpati Didi and Drone Didi scheme aimed at women engaged in SHGs,  increasing the crops under MSPs to 24, and increasing the annual income limit for creamy layer from Rs 6 lakh to Rs 8 lakh, helped it reach out to the backward classes. 

Despite resistance from the leaders in the state unit, including former home minister Anil Vij and union minister Rao Inderjit Singh declaring claims to the top post, the BJP leadership stood by him. The party’s poll in-charge for the state Dharmendra Pradhan was quick to remind everyone that Saini is the party’s CM face, and his name had been declared by home minister Amit Shah. 

When a majority of pollsters pointed at a Congress sweep, Saini remained unfazed. “Aanth tareekh ko janta degi jawab, aur yeh Congress kahegi EVM kharab hai (The people of Haryana will respond on October 8, and then the Congress will say that EVMs are at fault),” Saini had said. Turns out he was right. 

Haryana Assembly poll 2024 results| Check constituency results here

J&K Assembly poll 2024 results| Check constituency results here

Assembly Elections 2024 | In the first assembly polls since the Lok Sabha elections, Narendra Modi and the BJP face a rejuvenated and vindicated Opposition in the Haryana assembly polls. Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir is voting after almost a decade and it remains to be seen how the abrogation of Article 370 has impacted the political landscape of the Valley. Check live updates and track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analyses only on Deccan Herald.

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