Chandigarh, Mar 12 (UNI) In a dramatic turn of events, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar resigned on Tuesday following which Nayab Singh Saini was chosen as the leader of the BJP Legislature party here.

Saini, the state president of the BJP, is likely to take oath as the new chief minister in the evening, sources said.

Khattar, who has been occupying the post of Haryana Chief Minister since October 26, 2014, put in his papers amidst a seat-sharing tussle between the state's ruling coalition partners Bharatiya Janata Party and the Jannayak Janata Party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

The veteran leader went to the Raj Bhawan here and submitted his resignation to Governor Bandaru Dattatreya. There is also speculation that the BJP may pit him as its candidate from the Karnal LS seat.

Later, Saini - the Lok Sabha member from Kurukshetra - met the Governor and staked his claim to form the government.

"I thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, (BJP) national president JP Nadda, BJP Haryana state in-charge Biplab Deb and former Chief Minister ML Khattar, all the MLAs and independent MLAs on being elected leader of the BJP Legislative Party unanimously.” Saini posted on X (formerly Twitter).

Since the 2019 Assemlby election results, the BJP and JJP have been running a coalition government in Haryana. The trouble erupted with the JJP asking for two of the ten Lok Sabha seats in the state, this time - Hisar (from where BJP MP Brijendra Singh recently quit the party and joined the Congress) and Bhiwani-Mahendragarh. The BJP was not in favour of giving a single seat to the JJP.

The BJP has 41 seats in the 90-member Haryana Assembly and is likely to bank on some independents in forming the government again. There are also speculations that they could be a split in the JJP legislature party.



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