Chandigarh, Mar 12 (IANS): Eyeing a strategy to change the helm in the run-up to assembly elections that may pay off like Uttarakhand, the BJP legislature party in Haryana on Tuesday elected Lok Sabha MP Nayab Singh Saini, belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBC), as its leader, paving the way for the next Chief Minister after Manohar Lal Khattar’s exit.

The election of Saini, a first-time MP, may help the party strengthen its hold among the Other Backward Classes.

Also, political observers believe, the new face at the helm is part of the BJP’s strategy of changing chief ministers and resetting the cabinet ahead of assembly polls to thwart anti-incumbency, an exercise previously done in Uttarakhand and Gujarat where the party repeated its governance.

“With the strategy working earlier in its favour in Uttarakhand and Gujarat, the BJP is encouraged to undertake similar steps in Haryana, where assembly polls are due in October, to counter factors that might work against it,” a senior party leader told IANS.

As soon as Saini's name was proposed, Home Minister Anil Vij left the meeting. The outgoing Cabinet comprised 14 ministers, including Khattar and three members of the JJP. All have resigned.

At present, the BJP has 41 MLAs in the 90-member House while the JJP has 10. The BJP also enjoys the support of six of seven Independents. The main opposition Congress has 30 MLAs and the Indian National Lok Dal and the Haryana Lokhit Party have one seat each.

Khattar in October 2019 was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Haryana where the BJP formed a government, state’s first non-Congress government at the helm for the second consecutive term. In the second term, the BJP formed the government in alliance with the then newly formed Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) led by Dushyant Chautala, who took oath as Deputy Chief Minister.

“Hearty congratulations and best wishes to State BJP President Shri @NayabSainiBJP ji on being elected as the leader of the legislative party,” BJP Haryana in charge Biplab Deb wrote on X.

“I am confident that he will take forward the development works of Haryana started under the guidance of Honorable Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi ji and the leadership of chief minister Shri Manohar Lal Khattar ji and will take the state forward in terms of development,” he added.

Earlier in the day, Khattar resigned as the chief minister amid breaking up of an alliance with the JJP as the two parties failed to reach an agreement over seat-sharing ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

Chief Minister-designate Saini, a close confidante of Khattar, is a Lok Sabha MP from Kurukshetra. He was appointed as state BJP chief last October.

Saini entered politics almost 30 years ago. He was elected as an MLA from Narayangarh in the 2014 Assembly polls. He was inducted in the Cabinet in 2016.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Saini contested and won from the Kurukshetra constituency, defeating Congress' Nirmal Singh by a huge margin.