Manohar Lal Khattar

Manohar Lal Khattar was born on 5 May 1954. His father came from Jhang in West Punjab and settled the family in Rohtak district after the 1947 Partition. He joined the RSS in 1977, worked as a full-time pracharak for 17 years, moved to the BJP in 1994 and was its organisational general secretary in Haryana from 2000 to 2014. He was Haryana's Chief Minister from 26 October 2014, the BJP's first there, until 12 March 2024; his second term from 27 October 2019 was formed with the Jannayak Janta Party. He won the Karnal Lok Sabha seat in June 2024 and has been Union Minister of Power and of Housing and Urban Affairs since 10 June 2024.

Where his record meets Punjab

• Panchkula, 25 August 2017. After a CBI court at Panchkula found Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh guilty of rape, his followers went on a rampage. Reports of the number killed range from 32 (LiveLaw) to 37 (The Tribune). A High Court bench described the day, in the words The Tribune reports, as a "political surrender to lure vote banks" and asked why the followers were not stopped from gathering despite prohibitory orders. Khattar said that "anti-social elements" had mingled with the Dera followers, and on the night itself admitted security lapses. A full bench is still examining whether Haryana was complicit; the amicus curiae argued that the state was hand in glove with the Dera, which is his submission and not a finding.
• Paroles. In June 2019 Khattar said that anyone entitled to parole can seek it and "we cannot stop anyone". In October 2022, when Ram Rahim was given 40 days' parole before the Adampur by-election, Khattar said he had no role in it; Outlook linked the parole to that by-election and the panchayat polls and said it caused a furore. On the SGPC's petition, the High Court noted on 29 February 2024 that Ram Rahim had been released for 91 days in each of 2022 and 2023, and barred further parole without its permission.
• Farmers, 2020 and 2021. When the Delhi Chalo march from Punjab reached Haryana on 26 November 2020, Haryana police used water cannon and tear gas, barricaded highways and dug up the road near Panipat, while Khattar told the opposition to stop inciting innocent farmers. Two days later he said his government had "inputs" about Khalistani separatists in the protest, a claim Punjab's Chief Minister Amarinder Singh criticised. On 3 October 2021 a video showed him telling BJP Kisan Morcha workers to form volunteer groups and give protesters "tit for tat"; the opposition said he was urging attacks on farmers, and on 8 October he withdrew the remark, saying his government's aim was to keep law and order.

Remembered for: a decade as Haryana's chief minister, and, in Punjab, for the Panchkula violence, the paroles of Ram Rahim during his term and the stopping of the farmers' march at the Haryana border.