When Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced on 29 June that the party would contest the Haryana Assembly elections under the leadership of CM Nayab Saini, everyone thought that the party had decided to make him a scapegoat for the imminent defeat. They saw it as a measure to save Prime Minister Narendra Modi or the central leadership from taking responsibility for the results.
With the ruling party faring badly in the Lok Sabha polls held on 25 May—the BJP lost five of the 10 Lok Sabha seats to Congress and could maintain a lead on 44 out of 90 Assembly segments—a victory for the resurgent Congress in the upcoming Assembly elections was taken as a foregone conclusion.
Even during the campaign for the October polls, Modi addressed just four rallies as opposed to 10 in 2014 and six in 2019. Even his larger-than-life cutouts—a hallmark of BJP’s campaign post-2014—were missing this time.
However, with his affable smile, never-say-die spirit and a series of rallies across the state, Nayab Saini has surprised everyone by converting a certain defeat into one of the biggest victories for the BJP in recent elections. And that is why Nayab Saini is ThePrint Newsmaker of The Week.
The BJP won 48 seats, while the Congress, which was planning to return to power riding on an anti-incumbency wave only bagged 37 seats.
Saini was elected MLA from Ladwa seat, Kurukshetra where he defeated Congress’ Mewa Singh by over 16,000 votes.
Also read: A defeated Congress doesn’t guarantee BJP victory in states. Prepare to fight regional parties
Humble beginnings
From an assistant in the BJP’s Haryana State office in 1996 to being sworn in as the 11th Chief Minister of Haryana on 12 March this year, 54-year-old Nayab Singh Saini’s political journey has been swift and remarkable. His rise has been unstoppable since October 2014, when he was first elected to the Vidhan Sabha from Naraingarh assembly seat in Ambala district.
His appointment as CM came as a surprise after Manohar Lal Khattar’s sudden resignation.
Khattar revealed to the media that his association with Saini dates back to 1996. Khattar was the Organising Secretary of the BJP for Haryana, and Saini was an assistant in the BJP’s Panchkula office.
“He (Saini) was responsible for typing letters and handling routine office tasks like maintaining records and correspondence,” Khattar had remarked on 12 March.
During this period, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, then BJP’s in-charge for Haryana, would frequently visit Rohtak, where he interacted with Khattar. A BJP insider shared with ThePrint that Saini’s dedication to Khattar was such that he even drove Khattar’s car when required.
Even before stepping up to take the oath, Saini was seen paying respect to the former CM by touching his feet during the swearing-in ceremony held at the Raj Bhawan in Chandigarh.
Also read: Haryana lesson for Congress—stop relying on old guard who can no longer win you elections
Not one for the status quo
Immediately after taking over, Nayab Saini sent across a message that he was not one to go with the status quo; he had a vision of his own.
Among the first steps he took was to open the doors of CM’s official residence at Chandigarh (named Sant Kabir Kutir during Khattar’s era) to the public so they could air their grievances. When Khattar was at the helm, people were not allowed to meet him at his official residence.
He gauged immediately that people in Haryana were upset with some of the digital governance initiatives like Property ID, Family ID, compulsory registration of crops by farmers online, e-tendering in the development works by Panchayats and others taken by his predecessor. He announced that any initiative which is not popular with people will be amended or scrapped.
He realised that the farmers were unhappy with the BJP on the issue of minimum support price and that the Agniveer scheme, launched by the Centre for recruitment to the Armed Forces, was not welcome in Haryana. He announced MSP on all 24 crops and jobs for Agniveers who complete their four years of service in the Army and are not absorbed by the force.
Kiran Choudhry, a former minister, who quit the Congress with her daughter Shruti Choudhry to join the BJP ahead of Assembly elections said Saini is a very humble person who comes across as a very sincere.
Shruti has this time been elected as MLA from her family’s traditional Tosham seat in Bhiwani.
“He is always open and amendable to suggestions and always acts upon good suggestions given to him,” Choudhry told ThePrint.
Also read: Haryana, J&K results hold one lesson—INDIA alliance should be the face in fight against BJP
A quick rise
Born on 25 January 1970, in Mirzapur Majra village in Ambala, Nayab Singh Saini holds the distinction of being the first Chief Minister of Haryana born after the state’s formation in 1966. His father, Telu Ram, was a retired serviceman and a small-scale farmer, while his mother, Kulwant Kaur, is a homemaker.
Saini’s wife, Suman Saini, contested the Zila Parishad elections in November 2022 but was unsuccessful. The couple has two children—a son and a daughter—both of whom are students.
Saini earned his BA degree from BR Ambedkar University, Muzaffarnagar, and a law degree from Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut.
Rajesh Ratoura, former district president of the BJP in Ambala, has known Saini since 2002. It was the same year Saini became district Mahamantri of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) in Ambala. He rose through the ranks to become district president of the BJYM in 2005 and later district president of the BJP in 2012.
Before this, Saini ran for the Naraingarh assembly seat in 2009 as a BJP candidate but secured only the fifth position, with less than 7 per cent of the vote. Congress candidate Ram Kishan won that election.
In 2014, Saini turned the tables by defeating Kishan with a substantial margin of over 24,000 votes, securing his first term as MLA. During the 2019 Parliamentary elections, the BJP fielded Saini from Kurukshetra after the sitting MP, Raj Kumar Saini, rebelled and formed his own political outfit. Nayab Singh Saini successfully won the seat.
In October 2023, he was appointed the state president of the BJP, replacing OP Dhankar, and in March 2024, he took over from Khattar as Chief Minister.
“Saini comes from a humble, middle-class background. While his family wasn’t particularly wealthy, they were also not struggling for basic needs. Despite his political success, Saini has remained grounded,” Ratoura said.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)