Sad with Nayab Singh Saini being made Haryana Chief Minister earlier this 12 months, Anil Vij walked out of a BJP legislature celebration assembly in a huff, obtained into his automobile, and drove again to his house in Ambala Cantonment and refused to attend the swearing-in ceremony. This was again in March and 7 months down the road, Vij on October 17 took oath as a minister of the brand new Saini Cupboard, with the celebration having returned to energy for a historic third straight time period.
Vij’s return reveals his consummate political survival abilities and why he’s seemingly indispensable to the BJP in Haryana regardless of touchdown each himself and the celebration in a spot a number of occasions up to now resulting from varied remarks, type of functioning, and his hot-and-cold relationship with each Saini and his predecessor and present Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.
BJP insiders stated the important thing motive for the minister’s continued significance to the celebration was his maintain on the Ambala Cantonment seat that he received seven occasions to date, profitable 4 straight occasions since 2009. Amongst his voters, he has a picture of a “most accessible chief who takes care of their points”, no matter any division, be it the police, income, or city native our bodies. Recognized for his “on-the-spot” redress of individuals’s grievances, Vij used to carry common Janata Darbars (public listening to classes) at his house in Ambala.
A key political participant in state politics for many years, Vij’s sphere of affect extends to the bigger Ambala division that has 18 Meeting constituencies. Although the BJP swept the area within the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, taking a lead in all 18 Meeting segments, it received solely 9 within the Meeting elections a number of months down the road and once more took the lead in solely 9 Meeting segments on this 12 months’s parliamentary polls. Within the latest Meeting elections, the Congress outperformed the BJP on this area, profitable 12 seats whereas the remainder went to the latter. With out Vij, it will likely be tough for the BJP to interrupt the Congress maintain on this area.
Run-ins with Khattar
Vij, nonetheless, has not been somebody the BJP has been in a position to hold in examine up to now, with the basis of his discontentment being his rivalry with Khattar.
In October 2023, the minister hit the headlines for steering the police prime brass to droop 372 investigating officers for not taking motion on pending complaints for a couple of 12 months. Greater than 100 officers subsequently confronted suspension. A month later, he stopped clearing recordsdata and chairing the Well being Division’s conferences in protest in opposition to “interference by the chief minister’s workplace (CMO) officers”.
In December 2020, Vij and Khattar have been at loggerheads over the intelligence wing. Vij who held the House portfolio insisted that moreover the CM he must also obtain common briefings from state intelligence officers. Finally, each met the celebration’s central management in Delhi and the intelligence wing of the CID went to Khattar.
Subsequently, Vij additionally misplaced two key departments, technical schooling and science and know-how, as each have been merged with the Division of Larger Schooling, which got here underneath then minister Mool Chand Sharma.
Within the run-up to the Meeting polls, Vij underlined that he would stake declare to the CM publish, citing his seniority. “Agli mulaqat ab Mukhyamantri awaas par hogi (I shall meet you all subsequent at CM’s residence),” he instructed reporters throughout an interplay.
He has appeared to have softened his place because the outcomes. “I by no means stated that I wished to turn out to be the CM. Somewhat, a number of folks unfold lies that Anil Vij is shy of duty. I solely stated that if the celebration desires me to be the CM, I shall do my responsibility diligently. I’m a dedicated soldier of the BJP and no matter duty my celebration will give me, I shall fulfil it,” he stated.
Born on March 15, 1953, in Ambala Cantonment, Vij labored in a nationalised financial institution for a number of years and over 4 a long time in the past shifted to politics with the assistance of Sushma Swaraj who twice received from Ambala Cantonment, in 1977 and 1987. In 1990, when Swaraj was elected to the Rajya Sabha, she requested Vij to resign from his financial institution job and contest the bypoll for the BJP. This launched Vij’s political profession and the next 12 months, he was appointed the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha’s state president.
