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New Delhi: Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini at the BJP headquarters for the party’s central election committee (CEC) meeting, in New Delhi, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. (Photo: PTI)
Haryana Assembly elections: The 10 am counting trends for the elections on Tuesday showed Bharatiya Janata Party CM Nayab Singh Saini leading from the Ladwa constituency (margin of 840 votes) in Haryana. Saini, who was elected during the Karnal by-polls earlier this year, is seeking to return as the CM of Haryana, taking forward Manohar Lal Khattar’s 10-year legacy.
A party needs 45 seat marks to form a government in the 90-member Haryana Assembly. Saini was appointed as the CM of Haryana in March after Khattar stepped from his position to contest the Lok Sabha elections in June. He won as an MP from his stronghold Karnal, while Saini took over the Karnala Assembly constituency.
Why did Nayab Saini fight from Ladwa instead of Karnal?
According to an earlier report by the Indian Express, Saini wanted to contest from Karnal seat in the polls. However, he was ‘reluctantly’ fielded from Ladwa, being considered the saffron party’s safest bet. In the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP won 47.14 per cent of the vote in the Ladwa Assembly segment of the Kurukshetra constituency. While this is lower than the 58.5 per cent it achieved in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, it is a significant improvement over the 32.7 per cent it received in the 2019 Assembly elections.
Before becoming the CM, Saini was the BJP’s Haryana unit president. He has also been an MP from Kurukshetra seat. From Ladwa, the Congress fielded Mewa Singh, the incumbent MLA who won the 2019 polls by a narrow margin of 12,637 votes.
Meanwhile, in Karnal, the BJP has named Jagmohan Anand, a close aide of Khattar, who is currently leading by a margin of 1,470 votes, the 9.30 am trend showed.
First Published: Oct 08 2024 | 10:21 AM IST
