NEW DELHI: Ending its four-and-half-year alliance with the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) led by Dushyant Chautala and after the surprise resignation of Manohar Lal Khattar from the post of the chief minister along with his cabinet ministers, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday chose OBC leader Nayab Singh Saini as Haryana's new CM. Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya administers the oath of office to Saini in Chandigarh along with five MLAs, four from the BJP Kanwar Pal Gujjar, Moolchand Sharma, Dr Banwari Lal, J P Dalal and one independent MLA Ranjit Singh as ministers. 

A day later on Wednesday Saini won the floor test at a special Assembly session convened by the new CM. The BJP held a legislative party meeting at 10 am ahead of the special assembly session. Khattar and other BJP MLAs had attended the crucial meeting. In the 90-member state assembly, the BJP has 41 members, and it also enjoys the support of six of the seven independents as well as of lone Haryana Lokhit Party MLA Gopal Kanda. The JJP has 10 MLAs in the House. The main opposition Congress has 30 MLAs while the Indian National Lok Dal has one.

Interestingly despite the fact that the JJP had issued a whip to 10 MLAs and asked them to abstain from voting in the floor test, four of the JJP MLAs namely Jogi Ram Sihag, Ishwar Singh, Ramkumar Gautam and Devendra Babli broke ranks and arrived in the state assembly, however later the four JJP MLAs and an Independent MLA, Balraj Kundu, left the House.

Interestingly, former state home minister and six-term MLA Anil Vij did not find a place in the new cabinet and he walked out of the BJP Legislature Party meeting and returned to his home in Ambala in his private vehicle and was absent for the CM's swearing-in ceremony Meanwhile as widely speculated, a day after Khattar resigned from his post along with his cabinet ministers, he was fielded from the Karnal Lok Sabha seat.