Chandigarh, Oct 16 (IANS) Nayab Singh Saini was elected as the leader of the BJP legislature party in Haryana at a meeting held at Panchkula on Wednesday, attended by central BJP observers Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, paving the way for his return as Chief Minister. The BJP’s 48 legislators elected Other Backward Class (OBC) leader Saini, 54, as their leader to head the BJP’s record third consecutive government in Haryana. Saini will take the oath for the second time on Thursday amidst the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Shah, ministers and chief ministers of BJP-ruled states. Saini’s name was proposed by seven-time, senior party legislator Anil Vij and seconded by several legislators. For the second time, Panchkula, near the state capital Chandigarh, will be hosting the swearing-in ceremony of the BJP government. The ceremony will be held at the Dussehra ground at 11 a.m.. in Sector 5. Earlier, the swearing-in ceremony was planned for October 15, but owing to PM Modi’s availability on October 17, it was rescheduled, party leaders said.

In 2014, Panchkula was the venue for the swearing-in of Manohar Lal Khattar, the BJP’s first Chief Minister in the state, after the party won a majority with 47 seats in the 90-member Assembly. At that time also, PM Modi had attended the ceremony. The party won 40 seats in 2019, but came back to power with the support of Dushyant Chautala's Jannayak Janata Party (JJP). In the 2024 elections, the BJP won 48 seats. The Congress was the second-largest party with 37 seats, while the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) got only two seats. Independent candidates who got three seats, extended unconditional support to the BJP, whereas the JJP and Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) drew a blank. A confidant of two-time Chief Minister Khattar, Saini entered politics almost 30 years ago. He was elected as an MLA from Naraingarh in the 2014 Assembly polls and inducted into the Cabinet in 2016. Saini had replaced BJP veteran Khattar as the Chief Minister in March, just two months before the Lok Sabha elections. Eight out of 10 ministers in the outgoing Saini Cabinet faced defeat in the just concluded Assembly polls. /IANS