Ahead of the Assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday appointed Haryana BJP MLA Mohan Lal Badoli as the Party's State President. Badoli replaces State Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini who also held additional charge as the state BJP president.
The BJP has been in power in Haryana since 2014, but the Congress displayed strong signs of revival in the recent Lok Sabha elections, winning five of the state's 10 parliamentary constituencies. The appointment comes as the ruling BJP in Haryana gears up for the Assembly polls, slated to take place in October. Union Home Minister Amit Shah on June 29 said the BJP will fight the upcoming Haryana assembly elections alone under the leadership of Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini and exuded confidence that the party will come back to power in the state with full majority for its third consecutive term.
In the 2019 Haryana Assembly election, Badoli won the Rai constituency after defeating Congress candidate Jai Dahiya with a margin of over 2,600 votes. However, in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls, Badoli faced defeat from Haryana's Sonipat constituency. He lost to Congress' Satpal Brahamchari by a margin of over 21,816 votes.
Badoli, who is from Sonipat, started his political journey with the RSS in 1989. He became the first BJP leader to win the Rai Assembly seat in 2019. An RSS member since 1989, the 61-year-old Badoli, who is a Brahmin, was first elected to the Haryana Assembly from Rai in the 2019 Vidhan Sabha polls, winning the election by 2,663 votes. It was the first time the BJP won the seat.
Badoli used to run a shop in a cloth market near Sonipat’s Bahalgarh Chowk before getting into active politics. In 1989, he joined the RSS and subsequently moved to the BJP. By 1995, he held the position of Mandal Adhyaksh of Murthal. When the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) was in power in 2000, Badoli became the first BJP leader to win a Zila Parishad election from Murthal.
The BJP appointed Badoli its Sonipat district president in 2020 and the following year, he was appointed party general secretary and inducted into the state BJP’s core team. This year, he was again appointed party general secretary. In the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, Badoli was brought into the state BJP’s election committee.
CM Saini congratulates Badoli for his appointment as Haryana BJP chief
Soon after the appointment, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini congratulated Badoli over his appointment as the BJP's state unit president and exuded confidence that the party will come back to power for the third time.
In March, the BJP replaced Manohar Lal Khattar with Saini, an OBC leader, as the chief minister of Haryana. Khattar is now a Union Minister. Congratulating Badoli, Chief Minister Saini posted in Hindi on X, "Many congratulations and best wishes to Rai MLA Shri @MohanLal_Badoli ji on being appointed the state president of the Bharatiya Janata Party Haryana. "I have full faith that under your leadership the organisational work in Haryana will get a new direction and the BJP government will be formed for the third time," Saini posted. Newly appointed BJP's Haryana affairs in-charge Satish Poonia also congratulated Badoli. "I have full confidence that due to your important role, the BJP government will be formed again in Haryana with a huge majority in the upcoming assembly elections," Poonia posted on X in Hindi.
