NEW DELHI: The hero of BJP’s historic Haryana victory is chief minister Nayab Singh Saini who has literally snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. The BJP has scripted history in Haryana by winning third consecutive term in the state. Saini was all along confident about BJP’s win even when all the exit polls had predicted that the ruling party would barely manage to cross the 30-seat mark.
“The exit polls have their own theory and they have their own system, but we work on ground.Our leaders are directly connected with people. The people of Haryana want the BJP to come to power for a third time. We are forming the government for a third time,” Saini had said and asserted that the BJP will form government with majority.
Nayab Saini, the first OBC leader to become the chief minister, was handed over the reins of the state in March this year, just ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. This after the BJP, in a major course correction, removed Manohar Lal Khattar after 9 and a half years stint as chief minister of Haryana. The move to counter anti-incumbency did not help the BJP in national elections, but as the results show, Saini did manage to deliver in the assembly elections. He has led the BJP to its best-ever performance in Haryana.
Saini worked overtime to address several issues to counter possible anti-incumbency. In his short stint as chief minister, he made a series of populist and tactical decisions to consolidate party’s support base. Saini announced reservations in government jobs, special quota for Agniveers in the state. He announced an increase in annual income limit for creamy layer from Rs 6 lakh to Rs 8 lakh. The strategy was to reach out to the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Scheduled Castes (SCs) amid a perceived Jat consolidation behind the Congress. In a change of tactics, the BJP campaign in Haryana did not focus much on Modi’s guarantees or slogans like “Modi hai to Mumkin hai”. Prime Minister Modi gave direction to the party’s campaign but did not hold as many rallies as he normally does during assembly elections.
Saini is a law graduate, who contested the 2009 assembly elections from Naraingarh but lost to Congress’s Ramkishan Gurjar. In 2014 assembly polls, Saini contested from Naraingarh seat and won and was made a minister. In 2019, he won the Kurukshetra Lok Sabha seat by a margin of over 3.83 lakh votes. Saini, who won from the Ladwa constituency, credited the party’s performance in the state to Prime Minister Modi. “I give full credit to Modi ji. With his blessings, under his guidance, people of Haryana have put a stamp on the government’s policies,” Saini said.
