Haryana BJP minister Anil Vij slams CM Nayab Saini: ‘He never comes down from his flying chariot’

Hours later, the government transferred Ambala Deputy Commissioner Parth Gupta. Gupta, a 2013 batch IAS officer, to the neighbouring district of Yamunanagar, and Ajay Singh Tomar has been appointed in his place. Though the government did not officially mention any reason, sources said it was linked to the Vij episode. Asked about Vij’s allegation that “officers were not listening to him”, Saini told reporters in Rohtak, “Anil Vij is our leader.”

Vij, earlier in the day, alleged that during the elections, a senior party leader tried to ensure his defeat and even orchestrated an attack on him. The minister said within a week of winning the election, his seventh, he had “publicly raised the issue of those who played a role in trying to defeat me, whether they were officials, employees, or minor political figures”.

“At first, I suspected that someone with strong political backing had tried to defeat me and even went as far as attempting to have me eliminated,” VIj went on to say. “But now, after no action has been taken against them, I am convinced of it. Since I am the senior-most leader and I am saying that efforts were made to defeat me, action should have been taken immediately. If not strict action, at least they should have been transferred or expelled from the party. But even after 100 days, nothing has been done, and now, whether they act or not, it no longer matters to me.”

On Thursday, Vij said he had discontinued the “janata darbar (public meetings)” he used to hold in his constituency Ambala Cantonment as “officers are not doing the work (on my instructions)” and that he would launch an agitation if this continued.

Independent candidate and former Congress leader Chitra Sarwara who finished second behind Vij in the Assembly polls last year said the minister’s comments revealed his failure. “The people of Ambala voted for Anil Vij seven times so that he could do their work. Your party gave you ministership. You should not give a threat to observe a fast-unto-death and launch an agitation. When the budget of crores was being allotted to Ambala, you said works were done at the speed of a bullet,” she said.

Anil Vij’s many rebellions

This is not the first time that Vij has targeted the party leadership. He recently called for the party’s state president Mohan Lal Badoli to resign from his post after the Himachal Pradesh Police booked him in a gang-rape case. Vij said the allegations were serious and expressed confidence that the party’s central leadership would take appropriate action. He was the only state BJP leader to call for Badoli’s resignation.

Last year, after the BJP replaced Manohar Lal Khattar with Saini as CM, Vij walked out of a legislature party meeting, drove back to his home in Ambala Cantonment, and reused to attend Saini’s swearing-in ceremony. Vij, one of the most senior BJP leaders in the state, had lost out to Khattar in the race for CM and had to be placated with key portfolios such as home and health.

However, his run-ins with Khattar continued. In December 2020, Vij and Khattar were at loggerheads over the intelligence wing. Vij who held the Home portfolio insisted that, along with the CM, he too should also receive regular briefings from state intelligence officials. Eventually, both met the BJP leadership in Delhi and the intelligence wing of the CID went to Khattar.

In October 2023, the minister directed the police top brass to suspend 372 investigating officers for not taking action on complaints pending for more than a year. More than 100 officers subsequently faced suspension. A month later, he stopped clearing files and chairing the Health Department’s meetings in protest against “interference by the chief minister’s office (CMO) officials”.

However, he is politically important to the BJP because of his influence in the Ambala division that has 18 Assembly constituencies. Though the BJP swept the region in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, taking a lead in all 18 Assembly segments, it won only nine in the Assembly elections a few months down the line and again took the lead in only nine Assembly segments in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. In the Assembly elections, the Congress outperformed the BJP in this region, winning 12 seats while the rest went to the latter. Without Vij, the party is most likely to find it difficult to get even those electoral returns and break the Congress’s hold in this region.