BJP legislature party meeting today, set to pick Nayab Singh Saini as leader
Nayab Singh Saini, chief-ministerial face of the BJP in the run-up to the 2024 Assembly poll, is set to be elected as the leader of the BJP legislature party meeting to be held at Panchkula tomorrow.
At the meeting to be attended by central BJP observers—Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav—the party’s 48 MLAs would elect the leader, who would head the BJP’s Council of Ministers for a record third time in Haryana. After the October 5 poll, the BJP gave its best-ever performance, winning 48 seats as against 47 in the 2014 poll.
Mohan Lal Badoli, state BJP chief, told “The Tribune” that the party high command had declared Saini as the CM face, however, certain constitutional formalities regarding the election of the leader of the legislature party by 48 MLAs are yet to be completed, he said evading a direct reply as to who would be elected leader by the BJP legislature party.
Sources, however, said Saini, the OBC face of the saffron party, was “certain” to be elected as the leader in view of non-Jats, especially OBCs, consolidating in BJP’s favour in the recent poll. “A senior BJP MLA will propose Saini’s name at tomorrow’s meeting,” the sources said.
Saini took over as Chief Minister from Manohar Lal Khattar on March 12, 2024, and the campaign was centred around him, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah showcasing him as the CM face.
With Shah, BJP’s chief poll strategist who ‘micro-managed’ the poll, being appointed as the central observer, the party wants a “smooth transition” of power. Shah was the first to declare Saini as the CM face at a rally in Panchkula on June 29.
Meanwhile, for the second time in 10 years, Panchkula will witness a VVIP-studded oath-taking ceremony of the BJP government. Senior politicians, led by Modi, besides Union ministers and CMs of 19 states, will participate.
The BJP wants the swearing-in to be a grand affair to gear up the party cadre for the crucial Maharashtra and Jharkhand Assembly poll in November, and Delhi poll early next year.
