Opinions differ, but no hard feelings for Haryana CM Khattar: Anil Vij

Pradeep Sharma

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Chandigarh, February 24

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Home Minister Anil Vij, who reportedly had not been seeing eye to eye on several key issues, today tried to put up a united front.

While Khattar scoffed at any differences between them, a vocal Vij did speak out his mind: “Matbhed hain par manbhed nahin (there is difference of opinion with CM, but nothing against him in my heart).

“Main hamesha apne mann ki baat Vij to bata deta hoon(I always share my inner feelings with Vij”), Khattar said when confronted with an inconvenient query about both leaders’ love-and-hate relationship.

Senior-most BJP MLA Vij’s statements and actions had caught the BJP-JJP government, especially Khattar himself, on the wrong foot many a time in the past.

Be it the control of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), retention of the former DGP Manoj Yadava in Haryana, action against several IPS officers and stripping Vij of the Urban Local Bodies Departments, the uneasy relationship between Khattar and Vij had always made headlines.

In fact, Vij’s recent statement that he, as the Home Minister, was not kept in the loop for providing the Z+ security to rape and murder convict Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim, revived reports of difference of opinion between the two senior leaders.

However, today Khattar was at pains to explain how he and Vij had been sharing a “friendly and cordial” relationship since early 1990 when Vij fought his election as an Independent candidate from Ambala. Vij, meanwhile, asserted that though he had difference of opinion with the CM, both were committed to the welfare of the state.

Uneasy relationship

Be it the control of the Criminal Investigation Department, retention of the former DGP Manoj Yadava in Haryana, action against several IPS officers and stripping Vij of the Urban Local Bodies Departments, the uneasy relationship between Khattar and Vij has always made headlines.