What Nayab Singh Saini brings to the table for BJP in Haryana ahead of Lok Sabha elections, assembly polls 2024

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Nayab Singh Saini belongs to the OBC community in Haryana. So, the move to make him the CM could be seen as a way for the BJP to set the caste-equation right and make inroads in the vote share among the OBCs. The BJP had replaced Om Prakash Dhankar with Saini as the Haryana party chief in October, a move then seen as an attempt to strengthen its hold on the OBC community.

According to PTI, the support of non-dominant OBC castes is crucial to its rise in a number of states since Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the party to power at the Centre in 2014. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP secured over 70 percent of the vote share of both non-Jat upper caste votes and OBC votes, according to data from Lokniti, a research program at the Center for Developing Societies (CSDS). Khattar had helped the BJP secure significant support from non-Jat castes.

This year, the BJP wants to contest all 10 Lok Sabha seats, including the western districts of Hisar and Bhiwani which have significant OBC populations. Like Khattar, Saini is also a non-Jat CM. Haryana stands at fifth position in India when it comes to large Scheduled Caste population.

There are 74 caste/communities (in central list) under the OBC category in Haryana. According to Census 2011, the percentage share of the scheduled caste population in Haryana was recorded at around 20 percent. It was 22.5 percent in rural areas and it decreased in urban areas from 14.4 percent to 15.8 percent.

Saini's appointment gels in with the BJP's exercise to elevate a younger lot of leadership. He, like Madhya Pradesh CM Mohan Yadav and Rajasthan CM Bhajan Lal Sharma, is in his 50s while Sai turned 60 last month. BJP has been giving surprises ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.