A major political development 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 platform a day earlier, had to leave the post of CM today. BJP leadership has handed over the command of the state to OBC face Naib Singh Saini.
The alliance of BJP and JJP has broken in Haryana, but still BJP along with independents has majority in the state.
After Khattar was suddenly removed from the post of Chief Minister, the question has started arising that why did BJP do this? Is this a ploy to reduce anti-incumbency or is there some other reason?
Khattar was CM twice, tried to reduce anti-incumbency
Manohar Lal Khattar, who comes from RSS background, was made the Chief Minister of Haryana by 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 farmers’ movement and various other issues, anti-incumbency started forming 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 to be held a few months later.
BJP had also taken a similar step in Gujarat and Uttarakhand, where it also got success in the elections later.
BJP had entered the elections in 2021 with a new face in place of the then Chief Minister of Gujarat Vijay Rupani and Tirath Singh Rawat in Uttarakhand and was successful in forming the government again in both the places.
Haryana has been in the news in the last few years due to many issues including Jat agitation, farmers’ agitation, violence during the arrest of Ram Rahim, which also affected Khattar’s image.
JJP was asking for Lok Sabha seats, did ‘all’ the work
Due to no one getting majority in the 2019 Haryana Assembly elections, Dushyant Chautala’s Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) supported BJP in the state, after which Dushyant Chautala was made the Deputy CM.
Relations between BJP and JJP had not been good for some time. One reason behind this was JJP’s demand for two seats for the Lok Sabha elections.
Dushyant Chautala also met BJP chief JP Nadda on Monday in Delhi. There was a demand to give Lok Sabha seats of Bhiwani-Mahendragarh and Hisar to JJP, which was rejected by BJP.
Actually, BJP argues that they won all the ten seats of Haryana in the last Lok Sabha elections. In such a situation, how can JJP be given two seats?
Apart from this, some time ago also JJP had been talking about fielding candidates on all the seats of Haryana. The dispute between BJP Haryana in-charge Biplab Deb and Dushyant Chautala is not hidden from anyone.
Dushyant Chautala also got a big shock amid his separation from BJP. In fact, five MLAs remained missing from the meeting called by Chautala on Tuesday. In such a situation, speculations about a possible break in the party have also started.
BJP’s move through Jat and non-Jat!
BJP has 41 MLAs in the 90-member Haryana Assembly. It also has the support of six independent MLAs out of seven.
At the same time, Gopal Kanda has also supported BJP. In this way, there is no threat to the BJP government in Haryana even without JJP.
Congress has 30 MLAs in the state, JJP has ten. By making Naib Saini the CM, BJP has actually played the trick of dividing Jats and non-Jats.
Haryana has the highest number of Jat voters at 27 percent. Generally, Jats in the state have been voting for Congress, JJP and INLD.
BJP has solved this by making OBC face Nayab Singh Saini the Chief Minister. BJP hopes that even if Jat voters get divided into three parts, by giving an OBC Chief Minister, non-Jat votes will come to its share.
In such a situation, the party may 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 also for the Lok Sabha elections.