Haryana Energy and Transport Minister Anil Vij
| Photo Credit: ANI
Haryana Energy and Transport Minister Anil Vij on Monday issued an indirect attack on Chief Minister Nayab Saini, accusing him of a conspiracy to defeat him in the last Assembly poll by supporting the rival candidate and Congress rebel Chitra Sarwara.
Ms. Sarwara, contesting as an Independent, had ended runner-up in the Ambala Cantonment Assembly poll losing by more than 7,000 votes to Mr. Vij, who has had a frosty relationship with Mr. Saini’s predecessor and now Union Minister Manohar Lal as well.
In a post on his account on X, Mr. Vij, known in political circles for being outspoken, uploaded pictures of a person named Ashish Tayal, purportedly a friend of Mr. Saini, alluding that he had supported Ms. Sarwara.
“Ashish Tayal, who calls himself a friend of Nayab Saini, has many pictures with Nayab Saini on Facebook. The same workers, who were seen with Ashish Tayal during the Assembly election, are also seen with the BJP’s opposing candidate Chitra Sarwara. What is this relationship called..? Tayal is still Nayab Saini’s best friend, so the question arises, who made him oppose the BJP candidate?” read the post.
Mr. Vij also encircled the BJP workers seen with Ms. Sarwara in the pictures accompanying the post and labelled them as “traitors”.
Strained ties
This is not the first time that Mr. Vij, also the former Home Minister, has attacked the incumbent CM. A seven-time MLA and one of the most senior BJP legislators, he had staked claim to the Chief Minister’s post in the run-up to the Assembly poll. But the party leadership snubbed him to repose faith in Mr. Saini, who was also party’s CM face going into the poll.
On completion of 100 days of the BJP’s new government in Haryana, Mr. Vij had taken a dig at the Chief Minister for allegedly losing connection with the masses saying “Nayab Saini has been on an udan khatola (helicopter) ever since he became the Chief Minister”.
In another cryptic post on X on Saturday last week, Mr. Vij wrote: “I do not speak, my soul speaks, and the voice of the soul cannot be suppressed.”
Hinting that the bureaucracy was running the show in the State, Mr. Vij had recently said he might stop going to monthly grievance redress meetings since his orders were not being adhered to by the officials. He had even threatened to sit on a fast-unto-death like farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal to make sure he was heard.
Face-off rumours
In one of the recent Cabinet meetings, Mr. Vij reportedly had a face-off with a powerful bureaucrat in the CM office and accused him of being the “de facto CM”. Mr. Saini’s media secretary Praveen Attrey, however, refuted the allegations as “mere rumours”.
Mr. Vij had also walked out of the party legislators’ meeting to formally appoint Mr. Saini as Chief Minister replacing Mr. Lal in March last year.
When Mr. Saini took over as CM in October 2024 after BJP’s third consecutive win, Mr. Vij was denied the Home and Finance portfolios for apparently causing embarrassment to his own party by defying its line on several occasions and speaking against his own party leaders.
Published – February 04, 2025 01:50 am IST