Chief Minister Manohar Lal’s close confidante Kurukshetra Lok Sabha member Nayab Saini was on Friday appointed Haryana BJP president replacing Om Prakash Dhankar, who has been appointed the national secretary.
With an OBC leader taking over the party’s reins from a Jat ahead of the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections next year the state BJP has tried to consolidate its “non-Jat” vote bank hoping for the division of Jat votes between Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress, the Indian National Lok Dal and the Jannayak Janta Party.
“It is a very clear message from the party that they don’t need Jats in Haryana,” said a senior BJP leader, not willing to be identified, adding that Mr. Dhankar’s appointment as national secretary too was in a sense “demotion” for him. He added that the party replacing Jat presidents both in Haryana and Rajasthan in a short span could send wrong signals to the community and harm the party’s prospects.
