Haryana polls: BJP leader Anil Vij says he will stake claim for CM's post if party comes to power
Ambala/Chandigarh (PTI): Senior BJP leader and former Minister Anil Vij on Sunday said he will stake claim for the chief minister's post if the party returns to power in Haryana after the October 5 Assembly polls.
The six-time MLA's remarks come at a time when the party has already made it clear that Nayab Singh Saini will be the chief minister if the BJP returns to power.
Saini is also the party's chief ministerial face in the polls.
"I never sought anything from the party till today... people from Haryana are coming to meet me. Even in Ambala, people tell me that I am senior-most why I did not become CM. On demand of the people, and on the basis of seniority, this time I will stake claim to become chief minister," Vij said.
Whether the party makes me or not, it is up to them. But if they make me CM, I will change Haryana's 'takdeer and tasveer' (destiny and face of Haryana), the Ambala Cantt MLA said.
When asked to clarify the remarks he made while interacting with reporters in Ambala, Vij later told PTI over phone, "I am the party's senior-most MLA and have won six elections and am contesting my seventh one. I have never sought anything from my party so far."
"But people from across Haryana and people of my own constituency have been meeting me... I will stake claim for the chief minister's post," the 71-year-old Vij said.
"It is up to the party high command to take a call," he said.
When pointed out the Saini has already been declared chief ministerial candidate, Vij said, "There is no bar on staking the claim. I will make my claim, let the party take a call."
Asked about the timing of his decision with polls only a couple of weeks away, Vij said he took the decision after people came to meet him.
"People have been regularly meeting me and asking me about this (that he is senior most and yet not become CM)," Vij said.
Notably, in March, Manohar Lal Khattar was replaced by Saini as chief minister. Polling for the 90 assembly seats in Haryana will be held on October 5 and the votes will be counted on October 8.
When BJP came to power in Haryana for the first time on its own strength in 2014, Vij along with few other BJP leaders including Ram Bilas Sharma, was frontrunner for the CM's post, but the party went with Manohar Lal Khattar, a first-time MLA then, as its choice.
Recently, BJP has faced resentment from some of its leaders who were denied tickets.
BJP leaders including Ranjit Singh Chautala, Laxman Napa, Karan Dev Kamboj and few others quit the party.
Former Minister Ram Bilas Sharma was also denied ticket from Mahendragarh this time.
In March, Vij was said to be upset with the BJP for not keeping him in the loop when the party decided to replace Manohar Lal Khattar as the chief minister and bring Nayab Singh Saini in his place.
He had then said he came to know about it only in the BJP MLAs' meeting here in which Saini's name was announced.
Vij later also did not find a place in the cabinet led by Saini. The senior BJP leader had also kept away from Saini's swearing-in ceremony in March.
In April, while addressing a public gathering in Ambala, Vij, without taking any names, had said, some people have made him a stranger in his party.
"Mana kuch logo ne mujhe meri party mein he begana bana diya hai, parantu kayee baar begane apno say bhi zyada kaam kar jaate hai, (It may be true that some people have made me a stranger in my party, but sometimes strangers do more work than own people)," Vij had then said.
Vij, who held the home portfolio in the Manohar Lal Khattar government, was often at loggerheads with Khattar when he was the CM.
Vij, has in the past maintained, that he is a dedicated worker of the Bharatiya Janata Party, but whatever he has to say he says it clearly.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
