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Updated: Apr 22, 2019 12:18 IST

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded its minister of state for labour and employment, Nayab Saini, from the Kurukshetra Lok Sabha seat to counter the criticism it faced after its sitting MP Raj Kumar Saini turned rebel and “failed to fulfil the expectations of the people”.

Nayab, a law graduate from Chaudhary Charan Singh University, is the sitting MLA from Naraingarh seat in Ambala district. He belongs to Mangoli Jattan village of Kurukshetra though his family shifted to Mirzapur in Ambala a long time ago. This would be his first Lok Sabha election.

Considered a close confidante of chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, his candidature from Kurukshetra is being considered as an attempt to appease the other backward castes (OBCs), especially the Saini community, and counter the criticism of its rebel MP Raj Kumar Saini, who was an open critic of reservation to Jats under the OBC category. Saini had even accused the BJP of bowing down to the Jats’ pressure after the quota violence of 2016.

Raj Kumar also embarrassed the BJP on several occasions by condemning party leaders, especially chief minister Khattar for ignoring the interests of OBCs by giving reservation to Jats. The BJP was looking for another OBC candidate from Kurukshetra as this seat has a history of sending Sainis to Parliament.

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Addressing a rally in Kurukshetra, Khattar even attempted to appease the Jat community, which has over 3 lakh votes in this seat, and admitted that Raj Kumar Saini’s candidature was a “big mistake”.

“We committed a mistake in the last election as we could not identify the person, who wanted to divide the society to fulfil his political motives,” Khattar said, adding, “But Nayab is hardworking and energetic and he would work to fulfil the expectations of people.”

As per political experts, Raj Kumar had got an overwhelming support from the people of Kurukshetra in the 2014 election. Riding on the Modi wave, he defeated Naveen Jindal by 1.3 lakh votes and won the Kurukshetra seat but could not fulfil the expectations of people and indulged in caste politics, say experts.

Fielding Nayab from Kurukshetra has its advantages as well as disadvantages. Since three assembly segments—Ladwa, Radaur and Shahbad— under this constituency have a majority of voters from the Saini and Punjabi communities, Saini may stand to benefit. But he may face a tough challenge from the Jat-dominated Kalayat, Kaithal, Guhla and Raduar segments as the BJP is being criticised here for not taking action against its sitting MP Raj Kumar.

Moreover leaders of the Jat community, who were leading the agitation, criticised the BJP government in the state for the February 2016 violence, in which 30 youths of the community were killed. Kaithal district of Kurukshetra Lok Sabha seat also witnessed several protests during the agitation.

On the other hand, Nayab also has an advantage because he has the support of BJP MLAs as six out of nine assembly segments under this constituency were resented by BJP candidates. Saini also has support of chief minister Khattar and is considered to be the only strong candidate of the backward community. The main opposition parties do not have any strong candidate from the OBC community against him and the INLD has already fielded Arjun Chautala from the seat.

“I have covered one round of my campaign and am getting support of all communities, including Jats. People of all communities want to vote for Modiji,” Nayab said while talking to Hindustan Times.

When asked if he faces a challenge in this election as the sitting MP failed to fulfil the expectations of people, he said, “People in this area know me very well. Though they have complaints against the sitting MP, they still want to vote for Modi.”

“I request all parties to declare their candidates so that people can chose the best representative but it seems leaders of opposition parties are not ready to contest,” he added. On if Congress fields industrialist and two-time MP Naveen Jindal from Kurukshetra, Nayab said, “People of this region are well aware of him and that is why he is unwilling to contest.”

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