New Delhi:

The business of winning a historic third consecutive election completed, the Bharatiya Janata Party has now switched focus to forming the new Haryana government, specifically the constitution of a cabinet with a nod to caste equations in the heartland state. 

The party’s 48 newly elected lawmakers are expected to meet later today, but it is the central leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on which all eyes rest.

There can be a maximum of 14 ministers in the Haryana government including Chief Minister-elect Nayab Singh Saini, who met Mr Modi at his residence in Delhi Wednesday. 

Sources told NDTV the BJP has already sanctioned a second (and first full) term for Mr Saini.

READ | BJP To Stay With Nayab Saini As Haryana Chief Minister: Sources

So that leaves 13 open positions, of which the BJP will have to look for 11 new faces because only Mahipal Dhanda and Mool Chand Sharma, have retained their seats.

Balancing caste equations and communities’ demands while forming a government is not an easy task, but it is one the BJP has done successfully in the recent past; in December last year, after winning the Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh elections, the party took its time to announce chief ministers and cabinets, consulting MLAs and state leaders.

NDTV Explains | BJP’s 2024 Gameplan Behind Hattrick Of Heartland Surprises

Similar measures will likely be necessary in Haryana, where the BJP now has nine MLAs from the Dalit community, eight with Punjabi origins, seven Brahmins, and six each from the Jats and the Yadavs. The party now also has Gurjars, Rajputs, Vaishyas, and an OBC leader.

The BJP has nine Dalit MLAs in this government, two of whom are at the forefront. One is six-time MLA Krishna Lal Panwar and the other is two-time MLA Krishna Bedi.

Among the eight with Punjabi origins is seven-time MLA and ex-Home Minister Anil Vij, who sulked in March after he was not made Chief Minister; this was after then Chief-Minister Manohar Lal Khattar stepped down following his nomination to a Lok Sabha seat.

Last month Mr Vij, who won his Ambala Cantonment seat, threw his hat into that ring for a third time but was again passed over, and that might create a bit of a problem for the party.

READ | BJP’s Anil Vij Says Will Stake Claim For Haryana Chief Minister Post

Then there is Jind MLA Krishnan Middha, who won his seat for a third straight time.

Another now three-time MLA is Ghanshyam Das Arora from Yamunanagar, but his appointment may be skipped since his seat lies within the Ambala region.

Mr Arora may be passed over for Vinod Bhayana, the three-time MLA from Hansi.

Then there are the Brahmins. 

Among them is three-time MLA from Ballabgarh Mool Chand Sharma, who will likely be retained in the Cabinet. Another possible is two-time Lok Sabha MP Arvind Sharma who won Gohana, and Ram Gautam, who delivered Safidon, which the BJP had never won.

The key for the BJP are six MLAs from the Ahirwal belt that voted, once again, overwhelmingly for the party. That support was crucial this time to defeat the Congress.

Among them is six-time MLA Rao Narbir Singh from Badhsahpur; he was not in the first Saini government but was in that headed by Mr Khattar after the 2014 election win.

Aarti Rao, the daughter of veteran junior Union Minister Rao Indrajit, won the Ateli seat for the first time, but her name is nevertheless on a shortlist, as is two-time MLA Laxman Yadav.

And then there are the Jats, one of the largest of Haryana’s sub-populations.

Jat leader Mahipal Dhanda is now a two-time MLA from Panipat (Rural) and is likely to be retained. Krishna Gehlawat, elected for the second time from Rai, is also in this race. A possible big new name is Shruti Chaudhary, the daughter of the party’s Rajya Sabha MP Kiran Chaudhary.

Other possibles include ex-minister Vipul Goyal from the Vaishya community.

READ | India’s Richest Woman Savitri Jindal, 2 Independents Back Haryana BJP

But perhaps the biggest name here is Savitri Jindal, India’s richest woman and an independent MLA from Hisar, who formally offered her support to the BJP last night.

The Rajput community may get Shyam Singh Rana and three-time MLA Harvinder Kalyan may be the Road community rep. Ranbir Gangwa could represent the OBC community; he was the Deputy Speaker in the previous government. Rajesh Nagar, a two-time MLA from Tigaon could be the Gurjar pick.

New Delhi:

The BJP may have defied exit poll predictions to pull off a surprise victory in the Haryana election, but eight ministers in the incumbent Nayab Singh Saini government and Assembly Speaker Gian Chand Gupta suffered defeat.

Among the ministers who lost this election is Ranjit Singh, who served as Haryana’s power minister from 2019-2024. The former MP finished third in Haryana’s Rania seat, which was won by Indian National Lok Dal’s Arjun Chautala.

Kanwar Pal Gujjar, who handled multiple portfolios in the incumbent government and also served as Haryana Assembly Speaker from 2014-2019, lost in Jagadhri today. He was defeated by the Congress’s Akram Khan by a margin of nearly 7,000 votes.

The other ministers who suffered defeats amid the BJP’s surprise victory in this election are Subhash Sudha in Thanesar seat, Jai Parkash Dalal from Loharu, Abhe Singh Yadav in Nangal, Sanjay Singh in Nuh, Kamal Gupta in Hisar and Aseem Goel in Ambala City. Of these, Sanjay Singh and Kamal Gupta finished third.

Haryana Assembly Speaker Gian Chand Gupta, who won the Panchkula Assembly seat in 2014 and 2019, has lost it this time to the Congress’s Chander Mohan, son of former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal.

Chief Minister Saini, however, posted a victory in Ladwa constituency.

Defying exit poll predictions and anti-incumbency theories, the BJP scored its best poll show in Haryana today, winning 48 out of 90 seats and comfortably defeating the main Opposition Congress, which was widely seen as the favourite in this poll contest.

The Congress was leading in early trends and party supporters responded by celebrating before the trends stabilised. As the counting entered later rounds, the BJP first clawed back and then left Congress far behind — at 37 seats.