Vij has right to stake claim but Saini is CM face: Badoli
Senior BJP leader Anil Vij has every right to stake a claim for any post but Nayab Singh Saini is the party’s only chief ministerial face, BJP state chief Mohan Lal Badoli has said.
He was reacting to Anil Vij’s statement that he being the senior-most party MLA would stake a claim for the Chief Minister’s post in case the BJP formed the government after the October 5 Assembly polls.
“I have never aspired for any post in the party. But being the senior-most legislator, I would definitely stake a claim for the CM’s post. It is for the party high command to accept or deny my claim,” Vij said today.
After replacing Manohar Lal Khattar as the Chief Minister with its OBC face Nayab Singh Saini in March this year, the BJP had already declared Saini as its chief ministerial candidate. The announcement was made by not less than Union Home Minister Amit Shah at a recent rally in Panchkula. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi heaped praises on Saini during his address at the Kurukshetra rally yesterday, claiming that the saffron patty would form the government for the third time in Haryana.
Expressing surprise at Vij’s statement a day after Modi kicked off the party’s campaign, a senior leader asserted that the statement had come at a ‘wrong’ time and would send confusing signals to the voters ahead of the Assembly polls.”
Sources said Vij’s statement was aimed at making his presence felt in the party. Though Vij was the senior minister in Khattar’s two tenures, yet he shared ‘uneasy relationship’ with the former Chief Minister.
Vij had reportedly expressed his dissatisfaction at the elevation of a ‘comparatively junior’ Saini as the Chief Minister. Vij has reportedly declined to be a part of the Nayab Singh Saini Cabinet. Vij’s claim is seen as sending a message to the high command, especially Khattar, that he was very much in contention for the chief ministerial post. Recently, Union Minister Rao Inderjit Singh had also staked a claim to the top post, saying it was desire of people of the Ahirwal region to see him as the Chief Minister.
