In 2024, BJP scripts history with landmark third consecutive win

The ruling BJP remained in the pole position in Haryana in the year 2024. A surprise hat-trick in 2024 Assembly polls after its below-par performance in the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year was a major highlight in the political landscape of the state.

Saini — Saffron party’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 lost security deposit on October 17, 2009, from Naraingarh Assembly segment, as he was sworn in Chief Minister for the second time exactly 15 years later at Panchkula in the presence of BJP top brass. Earlier, Saini proved to be man of the moment for saffron party by pulling off a virtually impossible hat-trick by leading from the front in the Assembly polls.

The year saw the emergence of Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini as the BJP’s new poster boy in Haryana after he led the saffron party to a historic hat-trick after the Assembly polls.

The year started with a nervous BJP going in for 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.

With anti-incumbency staring the saffron party in the face in the twin polls, the party was at the receiving end of several sections of society, including farmers, employees and traders, who threatened to upset the BJP’s applecart and deny it a third term in office.

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.

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 sprung a surprise when it won a majority 48 seats in the 90-member House despite drawing 5-5 with the Congress in the Lok Sabha polls.

In fact, 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 returned to power again.

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 drives targeting 50 lakh members.

The fag end also saw Saini come out of 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 Khullar, a Khattar loyalist, large-scale changes were made in the CMO. Saini also appointed 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.