Why did the BJP suddenly remove Manohar Lal Khattar from the post of Chief Minister?

BJP took a major political development, which was seen in Haryana on Tuesday when Manohar Lal Khattar resigned from the post of Chief Minister. Manohar Lal Khattar, who was praised by PM Modi on an open forum a day ago, had to step down as CM today. The BJP leadership has given the command of the state to OBC face Nayab Singh Saini. In Haryana, the alliance of BJP and JJP has broken, but still, BJP has a majority in the state with independents. After Khattar’s sudden removal from the post of Chief Minister, the question has started to arise as to why the BJP does this. Is there a trick to reduce anti-incumbency or some other reason?

What will be the future of Manohar Lal Khattar now?

Former RSS pracharak Manohar Lal Khattar was the tenth Chief Minister of Haryana. He was given the command of the state as Chief Minister in the year 2014. After this, he remained in the post of Chief Minister for almost ten consecutive years. Between 2000 and 2014, Khattar was also the organizational general secretary of BJP in Haryana.

At the same time,   during the  Lok Sabha elections in 2014, Khattar was also made the head of BJP’s election campaign committee in Haryana. Khattar is also an MLA from the Karnal assembly seat, while in the last two Lok Sabha elections, the Karnal seat has been occupied by the BJP.  The seat was won by Ashwini Chopra in 2014 and then Sanjay Bhatia in 2019.

Manohar Lal Khattar and his cabinet ministers suddenly submitted their resignations to Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya on Tuesday. Before the Lok Sabha elections, cracks had developed in the alliance between the BJP and the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP). While Khattar was the chief minister, Dushyant Chautala was the deputy chief minister. In this way, the alliance between BJP and JJP in Haryana broke. On the other hand, many JJP MLAs can also change sides. After only five out of ten MLAs arrived at the meeting called by Chautala, many speculations started.

How Manohar Lal Khattar also remained respected and work was also done

Manohar Lal Khattar and Nayab Singh Saini share a similar relationship as PM Modi had told them about him. Manohar Lal Khattar’s proximity to Nayab Singh Saini is nearly two decades old. It is said that on the recommendation of Khattar, Nayab Singh Saini got the ticket from Kurukshetra Lok Sabha seat. Apart from this, he is also the current state president of the party. The Saini community has the second largest population in Haryana after the Jats. In such a situation, Naib Singh has the benefit of both being close to Manohar Lal and being Saini.

Not a coincidence, it is an experiment to become CM of Nayab  Singh Saini

Nayab Singh Saini will now lead Haryana. He will take oath as Chief Minister at 5 pm. After the resignation of Manohar Lal Khattar, a meeting of the BJP Legislature Party was held, in which he was elected leader. BJP sources say that Nayab Singh Saini getting the command is not a coincidence but an experiment of the party.

There are many factors to make Nayab Singh Saini CM and this decision has been taken keeping them in mind. Nayab Singh Saini has more than 22 years of experience in the BJP. He joined the party in 2002 and has held several positions, including the district head.  He was elected MLA in the BJP government formed in 2014. After this,  he got a Lok Sabha ticket in 2019 and was elected from the Kurukshetra seat.

Suitable for OBC face and non-Jat politics

Nayab Singh Saini belongs to a community that is an important part of Haryana’s OBC politics for the upcoming Lok Sabha Election. The Saini community is an important part of the political polarization that has been taking place in the name of non-Jats in Haryana. Districts like Kurukshetra, Karnal, Ambala, and Yamunanagar have a sizeable population of the Saini community. In such a situation, if a non-Jat leader has to be made CM, then Nayab Singh Saini is a suitable leader. In Manohar Lal Khattar, the BJP had already given a big chance to a leader of the Punjabi community. In such a situation, now Naib Singh Saini will be a good option.

Khattar was CM for two times, trying to reduce anti-incumbency

Manohar Lal Khattar, who comes from an RSS background, was made the Chief Minister of Haryana by the BJP in the year 2014. After this, when the BJP and JJP government was formed in the 2019 assembly elections, Khattar again became the CM of the state for the second time. However, in the meantime, due to Kishan  Andolon and all other issues, anti-incumbency was being formed against the Khattar government. Khattar was the CM of Haryana for more than nine years. According to sources,  the BJP leadership considered replacing Khattar with a new face to overcome anti-incumbency in the assembly elections due a few months later.

The BJP took a similar step in Gujarat and Uttarakhand, where it later got success in the elections.  In 2021, the BJP entered the elections by replacing the then Gujarat Chief Minister Bijay Rupani and Tirath Singh Rawat in Uttarakhand by replacing him and managed to form the government again in both places. In the last few years, Haryana has been in the news for many issues including Jat agitation, farmer agitation, and violence during Ram Rahim’s arrest, which also affected Khattar’s image.

JJP was demanding Lok Sabha seats

Due to no one getting a majority in the 2019 Haryana Assembly elections, Dushyant Chautala’s Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) supported the BJP in the state, after which Dushyant Chautala was made Deputy CM. For some time, relations between BJP and JJP were not good. One reason behind this was the demand for two seats by JJP for the  Lok Sabha elections. Dushyant Chautala also met BJP chief JP Nadda in Delhi on Monday. There was a demand to give JJP the Lok Sabha seats of Bhiwani-Mahendragarh and Hisar, which the BJP rejected.

The BJP argues that in the last Lok Sabha elections, they won all ten seats in Haryana. In such a situation, how to give two seats to JJP? Apart from this, some time ago JJP had been talking about fielding candidates in all the seats of Haryana. The rift between BJP Haryana in-charge Biplab Deb and Dushyant Chautala is also not hidden from anyone. Dushyant Chautala also suffered a major setback amid separation from BJP. In fact, five MLAs were missing from Chautala’s meeting called on Tuesday. In such a situation, there is also speculation of a possible split in the party.

BJP’s ploy through Jats and non-Jats!

The BJP has 41  MLAs in the 90-member  Haryana Assembly. It also has the support of six of the seven Independent MLAs. At the same time, Gopal Kanda has also supported the BJP. In this way, there is no threat to the BJP government in Haryana even without JJP. The Congress has 30 MLAs in the state, JJP has 10 MLAs. By making Nayab Saini CM, the BJP has played a trick on Jat and non-Jat.

Haryana has the highest number of Jat voters at 27 percent. Generally, Jats in the state have been voting for Congress, JJP, and INLD. The BJP has broken it by making OBC face Nayab Singh Saini the Chief Minister. The BJP hopes that even if the Jat voters are divided into three parts, the non-Jat vote will come to its share by giving OBC Chief Minister. In such a situation, the party can benefit from it in the upcoming Lok Sabha and then Assembly elections. At the same time, by making OBC CM, the party has given a message to the OBC vote bank in other states for the Lok Sabha elections.

Like Haryana, CM was changed in Gujarat too

15 months before the assembly elections held in Gujarat in the year 2022, the BJP leadership suddenly changed the then Chief Minister Bijay Rupani as CM.  On September 11, 2021, Vijay Rupani resigned from the post of Chief Minister while meeting the Governor. After Rupani, Bhupendra Patel was made the new Chief Minister of Gujarat and then the BJP got a bumper victory in the 2022 assembly elections.

No official reason was given for Vijay Rupani’s removal from the post,  but speculation was rife that during the second wave of COVID-19 when the news of the deaths of people from Gujarat came out, there was a lot of resentment among the people against the BJP government and especially Vijay Rupani. Apart from this, sources also claimed that many BJP MLAs of Gujarat were also not happy and had made several complaints about the administrative officials. In such a situation,  Vijay  Rupani was removed from the post of CM a few months before the elections in 2021.

In Uttarakhand too, the Chief Minister was changed before the elections

Apart from Gujarat, in Uttarakhand too, the BJP changed its Chief Minister before the elections. In July 2021,  the then Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat submitted his resignation to the Governor. He was able to stay in office only for four months. The next year, assembly elections were held in Uttarakhand in 2022, in which the party led by  Pushkar Singh Dhami won 47 seats and formed the government again. However, while resigning, Tirath Singh Rawat cited the reason for not holding the by-election due to Corona. “Given the constitutional crisis, I felt it was right to resign,” he said in a brief statement.  The by-election could not be held due to COVID-19. “

Tirath Singh Rawat could be CM only for four months

Rawat could remain in office for only four months. At that time he was an MP from Pauri and to remain in the post of Chief Minister, he had to become a member of the Assembly by September 10, but due to COVID-19 and assembly elections a few months later, it was considered difficult to conduct the by-election. Apart from this, Tirath Singh Rawat also gave a controversial statement about wearing jeans, which caused a lot of ruckus.

After this, due to many other announcements, there was talk of resentment against Tirath in the public. In such a situation, the party leadership also replaced Tirath with Pushkar Singh Dhami, then MLA from Khatima. The BJP also benefited from this and in the 2022 Uttarakhand assembly elections, the party once again won a majority and formed a government in the state.

Dushyant Chautala’s party faces threat from Haryana government

Today is a big stir in the politics of Haryana. Suddenly, Manohar Lal Khattar called a meeting of BJP and Independent MLAs. Then he went to Raj Bhavan and resigned along with the cabinet. With this, the alliance with Dushyant Chautala’s party JJP i.e. Jannayak Janata Party broke. Dushyant Chautala is now out of power and it is reported that the BJP, with 41 MLAs, can form the government with 6 independents. In this way, the BJP has taken a big decision to divide Jat voters in the state and broke the alliance that has been going on for 4.5 years.

In this way, Dushyant Chautala has been out of power. Apart from this, a crisis has also arisen in his party. On one hand, a BJP meeting is going on in Chandigarh, on the other hand, in Delhi, Chautala called a meeting of his 10 MLAs. Only 5 MLAs of his party arrived at this meeting. This has led to speculation that a large section of his party may join the BJP. There has been speculation since this morning that 7 MLAs are in the process of switching sides. Now such speculations have been strengthened by the absence of 5 in the meeting.

The leaders who did not attend Dushyant Chautala’s meeting include Ram Kumar Gautam, Barwala MLA Jogi Ram Sihag, Guhla MLA Ishwar Singh, and Juliana MLA Amarjeet Dhanda. Not only this but at one time, his very close friend Devendra Singh Babli could also go with the BJP. He had joined the Haryana government as panchayat minister last year. However, for some days, he was seen criticizing Dushyant Chautala. Speculation of a split in the party has also been strengthened due to Jogi Ram Sihag, who did not attend Dushyant’s meeting, being seen going to the BJP meeting in Chandigarh. They were seen going inside the Haryana Niwas.

Gopal Kanda, the lone MLA of the Haryana Lokhit Party, said, “I believe that the alliance between BJP and JJP in Haryana has ended. The BJP should fight all the Lok Sabha seats in Haryana alone and it will win,” he said. We have been saying for a long that the BJP does not need JJP. I was also called to Chandigarh and I have come.  Dushyant Chautala was also present at the inauguration program of Dwarka Expressway in Gurugram on Monday. He was seated on the same stage where PM Modi, Nitin Gadkari, and CM Manohar Lal Khattar were.

‘People’s decision will not change by changing CM’: Bhupinder Singh Hooda

Hooda said the BJP-JJP alliance was not for any policy or public interest. Both had formed this alliance to enjoy power. Today both parties have broken the alliance to bluff the public. The truth is that this alliance has been broken under the same agreement under which the BJP-JJP alliance was formed. The two parties are still the same inside. But in the election, the opponents of the incumbency will fight separately to divide the votes. He had said this on public platforms even before the 2019 assembly elections. During the election campaign, he told the public that both BJP and JJP are in collusion and are doing drama of opposing each other only to divide Congress votes.

Finally the same happened and the   JJP sat in the lap of the government against which the people of Haryana had voted.  After running a government that betrayed public opinion for four and a half years, the BJP-JJP will again separate and go among the public and try to trick it. Bhupinder Singh Hooda said that the people of Haryana have now understood this game of collusion. But the wooden hand cannot climb again and again. This time in the elections, the people will take revenge for the betrayal done to the BJP-JJP  in 2019.

People still remember how the BJP-JJP government lathi-charged the farmers and fired tear gas shells at them. 750 farmers were martyred during the agitation. But JJP never spoke in favor of farmers. The daughters who brought glory to the country continued to protest on the streets of Delhi, but JJP always stood firmly with the accused.  Even when the sarpanch, sweeper, and employees were beaten by the government with lathis, JJP continued to celebrate getting power.   

Both the BJP-JJP parties also had equal participation in snatching the reservation of the OBC category by reducing the creamy layer income limit from 8 to 6 lakhs. Similarly, the JJP also decided to reduce the condition of Haryana domicile from 15 years to 5  years, which opened the way for giving employment to the local youth of Haryana to the people of other states.

Conclusion From aAditri Digital

In the wake of Manohar Lal Khattar’s abrupt resignation as Chief Minister of Haryana, a significant political upheaval has unfolded, marking a pivotal moment in the state’s political landscape. Khattar, a prominent figure in Haryana politics, has held the reins of leadership for nearly a decade, steering the state through various challenges and transformations. His resignation, followed by the elevation of Nayab Singh Saini as his successor, underscores a strategic move by the BJP to navigate the currents of anti-incumbency and reconfigure political alliances.

Khattar’s tenure, characterized by both acclaim and criticism, symbolizes a chapter in Haryana’s political saga. His departure prompts reflection on the legacy he leaves behind and the trajectory of his future endeavors. Meanwhile, Nayab Singh Saini’s ascent to the chief ministerial position heralds a new chapter, signaling a calculated shift towards non-Jat politics and OBC representation in the state.

The dissolution of the BJP-JJP alliance adds a layer of complexity to Haryana’s political landscape, setting the stage for a dynamic electoral contest in the coming months. Amidst speculations and conjectures, the future of Haryana’s political landscape hangs in the balance, as stakeholders recalibrate their strategies and aspirations.

As the state braces for impending elections, the decision-makers maneuvers reflect a nuanced understanding of electoral dynamics and the quest for power. Whether this political gambit yields the desired outcomes remains to be seen, but its ramifications are poised to reverberate across Haryana’s socio-political fabric, shaping its trajectory in the foreseeable future.