Gurugram: Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini has won the Ladwa assembly seat in Haryana’s Kurukshetra district, defeating his nearest rival, Mewa Singh of the Congress, by 16,054 votes, according to Election Commission data.
Saini, who replaced Manohar Lal Khattar as CM on 12 March, was elected to the Karnal assembly seat in a by-election held along with the Lok Sabha polls this year.
For Saini, who once used to type press notes in the BJP office in Panchkula and assist Khattar during the latter’s tenure as the organising secretary of the BJP in Haryana, the rise in politics has been meteoric.
He won his first assembly election from Naraingarh in 2014. In 2015, he was inducted into the Khattar cabinet as a minister of state. In 2019, Saini was fielded for the Lok Sabha polls from Kurukshetra and won the seat.
Considered close to Khattar, Saini had replaced O.P. Dhankar as Haryana BJP chief in October last year. And finally, he took over as CM this year.
Born in 1970 in Mirzapur Majra village, Saini joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (the BJP’s ideological fountainhead) during his student days reportedly under Khattar’s influence, and was named district president of the Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha in 2002. In 2012, he became district president of the BJP for Ambala.
Also Read: BJP faces Jat ire for replacing OP Dhankar as Haryana chief — ‘history of unfair treatment’