Chandigarh, Oct 17 (PTI) When the BJP picked Nayab Singh Saini as the Haryana chief minister in March to buck anti-incumbency, many felt a change of guard would not be enough to win elections. But the low-profile OBC leader proved all the naysayers wrong by steering his party to a third successive term in the heartland state.
Not a nobody but not a somebody either when he replaced strongman Manohar Lal Khattar as chief minister, Saini was the BJP's man of the moment on Thursday when he was sworn in to head the state.
The 54-year-old proverbial dark horse, who has risen through the ranks of the Haryana BJP, deftly changed public perception of himself and the party in a state which many thought would go to the Congress.
The BJP won 48 seats in the 90-member assembly. Three Independents, including Hisar MLA Savitri Jindal, have also extended support to the party.
Born in Ambala's Mirzapur Majra village on January 25, 1970, Saini served as minister in the Khattar cabinet between 2014 and 2019.
During the past three decades, Saini held various positions in the Haryana BJP, including district president and general secretary of Haryana BJP Kisan Morcha.
He was the state BJP youth wing's Ambala district general secretary in 2002 and became the district president three years later.
He was elected to the Haryana Assembly from Naraingarh constituency in 2014 and to Lok Sabha from Kurukshetra seat in 2019.
Saini was appointed as the Haryana BJP chief in October 2023 in an effort by the party to strengthen its hold over the OBC community and non-Jats. After he assumed charge as the chief minister, the BJP picked Mohan Lal Badoli as the state party unit chief in July.
Saini's elevation from the Haryana BJP president to chief minister in March came at a time when the party was facing anti-incumbency following Khattar's tenure of nine-and-a-half years and attacks from a buoyant opposition on farmers' issues, unemployment, Agnipath scheme, inflation, and law and order.
After Khattar resigned as chief minister in March, his Karnal assembly seat was vacated. Saini won the seat in a bypoll held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections in May, defeating Congress nominee Tarlochan Singh.
Barely days after Saini was brought in by the BJP, the Model Code of Conduct came into effect with the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections and later ahead of the assembly elections, effectively giving him only two months to turn the tide in the BJP's favour.
Saini quickly got to work, with his cabinet taking some important decisions.
Prominent among these were approving the Haryana Agniveer Policy, 2024 to provide employment and entrepreneurship opportunities to Agniveers after the completion of their service in the armed forces and giving the go-ahead to a proposal to buy 10 more crops at minimum support price, making Haryana the only state to purchase 24 crops at MSP.
The BJP also promised to provide cooking gas cylinders at Rs 500 under the 'Har Ghar Grahani Yojana'. The party's poll manifesto made more promises -- monthly financial assistance of Rs 2,100 for women, two lakh government jobs for youths and guaranteed government jobs for Agniveers from Haryana.
The ruling party's poll campaign focused on alleged corruption, favouritism and scams during the Congress rule with Saini crisscrossing the state to tell people about the BJP government's achievements.
The BJP also told voters about the Congress' "failure" to fulfil poll promises in states like Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana.
Notwithstanding the exit poll predictions, Saini had claimed the BJP would return to power in Haryana for a third consecutive term.
"Aath tareekh (Oct 8) ko janata degi jawab, aur yeh (Congress) kahenge EVM hai kharab (The people will respond on October 8 and the Congress will blame EVMs for its defeat)," Saini had said on October 6.
In the October 5 assembly polls, Saini won Ladwa assembly seat by a margin of 16,054 seats.
In a departure from tradition, the BJP had declared that Saini would remain chief minister if the party returned to power in Haryana after the assembly polls, even though former minister Anil Vij had also thrown his hat in the ring.
At a meeting of BJP MLAs on Wednesday, Saini was unanimously elected as the leader of the BJP legislature party in Haryana and Vij was among those who backed his name.