Chandigarh: The Bharatiya Janata Party is likely to retain Nayab Singh Saini as the Chief Minister after the OBC leader led the party to victory in the Haryana Assembly polls after a dismal showing in the Lok Sabha elections in the state. Defying exit poll predictions of a clean sweep for the Congress, the BJP has now surged to 48 seats in Haryana, securing a hat-trick of victories in the state. This performance surpasses even its 2014 breakthrough, when the party first came to power on its own. The party had just six legislators in 2000, then two in 2005 and four in 2009.
Thanking voters for BJP's win, Haryana Chief Minister Saini Tuesday said people have "put a stamp" on the government's policies under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Saini's rise to power
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.
Barely days after Saini, 54, 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 shift the public perception.
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.
What numbers say
Bucking anti-incumbency, the ruling party in the state has retained power and halted the Congress' comeback attempt in the assembly elections, the results of which were announced Tuesday. While the BJP ended up with its best-ever haul of 48 seats in the state, one more than its 2014 tally, the Congress won 37 seats and the INLD two. Three Independent candidates also tasted victory.
The BJP had contested 89 of the 90 seats in Haryana this time. It did not contest the Sirsa seat, from where its ally Gopal Kanda was the sitting MLA Kanda, however, lost his seat. Before 2014, the BJP was restricted from playing second fiddle, mainly to parties like the INLD and then Bansi Lal-led Haryana Vikas Party (now merged with Congress). It contested the polls on all 90 seats on its own for the first time in 2014.
In 2019, the BJP won 40 seats and formed the government in Haryana with the support of the JJP and some Independents. In 2014, the party was buoyed by its performance in the Lok Sabha polls, in which it had won seven of the eight seats it contested.
Prior to the 47 seats it won in 2014 and 48 this year, the BJP's best-ever electoral performance in Haryana, carved out as a separate state in 1966, was 16 seats out of 20 it had contested in 1987. The Devi Lal-led INLD had swept to power that year.
However, in 1991, the BJP again went down, managing to win just two seats. In 1996, it won 11. Unlike now and 2019, in the 2014 assembly polls, the BJP did not declare anyone as its chief ministerial candidate and the polls were fought under collective leadership.
Before the 2014 assembly polls, the then BJP ally Haryana Janhit Congress, which was then led by Kuldeep Bishnoi, had separated. To bolster its poll prospects, the BJP had covered all 90 assembly segments by way of four Vijay Sankalp Yatras. Kuldeep Bishnoi switched over from the Congress to the BJP in 2022.
Haryana went to polls on October 5 in a single phase.