Manohar Lal Khattar was unanimously elected as the leader of the BJP Legislative Party in Haryana on Saturday.
The announcement was made by Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. Prasad, along with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) general secretary Arun Singh, attended the legislative party meeting as central observers at the UT Guest House in Chandigarh.
Khattar’s name was proposed by MLAs Anil Vij and Kanwar Pal and seconded by other BJP legislators.
Khattar will now visit Haryana Governor and stake claim to form the government. He will take oath as the Chief Minister for a second straight term on Sunday. It has also been decided that Dushyant Chautala will be the Deputy Chief Minister.
Meanwhile, briefing the media, Ravi Shankar Prasad said that Khattar will have only one Deputy CM.
ML Khattar thanked the party leaders and workers for electing him as the leader of the BJP Legislative Party in Haryana.
हरियाणा भारतीय जनता पार्टी के विधायकों द्वारा मुझे पुनः @BJP4Haryana विधायक दल का नेतृत्व प्रदान करने के लिए मैं सभी नव निर्वाचित विधायकों, प्रदेश के सम्मानित पदाधिकारियों व केन्द्रीय नेतृत्व का आभार प्रकट करता हूँ। pic.twitter.com/rNnSbuqbvo
— Manohar Lal (@mlkhattar) October 26, 2019
On Friday night, BJP chief and Home Minister Amit Shah announced the formation of a coalition government with the JJP in Haryana.
“Keeping in mind the mandate of the people, leaders of BJP and JJP have decided that the two parties will form a government in Haryana together. The Chief Minister will be from the BJP and the deputy chief minister will be from JJP,” Amit Shah announced at a news briefing, flanked by Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Kahttar and Dushyant Chautala.
The top performer in the polls was the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) with 40 seats but fell short of 6 seats to form the government in the state. The Congress, the runner-up in the polls, managed to get 31 seats. JJP emerged as the kingmaker with 10 seats in the state.
The BJP, which had secured the support of seven Independents as well as former minister Gopal Kanda, decided not to include the latter’s name in the list of MLAs supporting it, after the party faced large-scale ire on social media for taking his support. Kanda is accused abetting the suicides of his then airline’s employee, Geetika Sharma, in 2012, and her mother early next year.
According to reports, after the oath-taking ceremony on Sunday, a new Cabinet is expected after Diwali.