How BJP bounced back to score hat-trick in Haryana

The ruling BJP successfully converted anti-incumbency into a historic third consecutive victory in Haryana, bouncing back from its below- par performance in the Lok Sabha polls and crushing an overconfident Congress.

Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini emerged as the BJP’s new poster boy in Haryana.

The year started with a nervous BJP going in for a leadership change in March replacing Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar with his low-profile protégé Nayab Singh Saini in the run-up to the parliamentary and assembly polls to duck anti-incumbency.

It was widely believed that slow pace of development in Haryana besides inconvenience to people due to various online portals during Khattar's government resulted in both the BJP and Congress securing five seats each in the Lok Sabha polls. This coupled with the voter fatigue with the BJP and yearning for a change gave a confidence to the Congress that it could exploit anti-incumbency against the saffron party and return to power after 10 years.

However, in a clever move, the party reposed faith in the non-Jats—OBC Nayab Singh Saini and Brahmin Mohan Lal Badoli, BJP chief—as the party’s faces in the assembly and Lok Sabha polls.

The party was able to sell the development and welfare initiatives of the double engine government in the last 10 years to the people in the run-up the October assembly polls.

Under the stewardship of its chief strategist and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who micro-managed the assembly polls with a band of dedicated senior leaders, the saffron party was able to woo the voters and spring a surprise as it won a majority 48 seats in the 90-member House despite having drawn 5-5 with the Congress in the Lok Sabha polls.

In fact, the party’s gamble of indulging in non-Jat politics paid it rich dividends in the assembly polls. This coupled with rampant factionalism within the Congress put the saffron party in an advantageous position vis-a-vis its political rival.

The October 5 Haryana poll result, the first hat-trick by any political party in Haryana’s history, had its repercussions in the Maharashtra assembly polls, where the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance again returned to power.

Buoyed by its stupendous success, the BJP started gearing up for the municipal polls, including elections to the nine municipal corporations in early 2025, by launching a massive membership drive targeting 50 lakh members.

The fag end also saw Saini come out of the shadow of his mentor Khattar as the former tried to build his own team, apparently in consultation with the party high command. While the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) continued to be headed by retired influential bureaucrat Rajesh Khular, a Khattar loyalist, large-scale changes were made in it. Saini also appointed a new CID chief and new Advocate General.

However, disappointment was in store for senior BJP leaders as the party high command picked up Rekha Sharma, former National Commission for Women (NCW) chief, for the lone Rajya Sabha seat ignoring claims of several BJP bigwigs for the post.

Saini: BJP’s new poster boy

The year 2024 saw the emergence of Nayab Singh Saini as the BJP’s poster boy in place of former CM Manohar Lal Khattar. Life came full circle for Saini, who had lost his security deposit from Naraingarh assembly segment in 2009, as he was sworn in chief minister for the second time in the presence of the BJP top brass, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Earlier, Saini proved to be man of the moment for the saffron party by pulling off a virtually-impossible hat-trick by leading from the front in the assembly polls.