Day after resignation as Haryana Chief Minister along with his cabinet colleagues, former Chief Minister and BJP leader Manohar Lal Khattar on Wednesday nominated as the BJP candidate in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Khattar's name figured in the second list of 72 BJP candidates released by the party for the states of Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal, Maharashtra and others.
Manohar Lal Khattar, who has been Haryana CM for two terms, has been pitched from the Karnal Lok Sabha seat in Haryana.
Earlier on Tuesday, Khattar and all 13 other members of the BJP-led council of ministers submitted their resignations to the Haryana governor. Later in the day, the party's state chief Nayab Singh Saini was sworn in as Haryana's new chief minister.
The former Haryana CM hours after his resignation had hinted that he may be fielded by the saffron party in the upcoming elections.
"It may be decided soon. Maybe it is about Lok Sabha polls. I think it is possible...whatever the parliamentary board (of BJP) decides, I will abide by it," he said on Tuesday.
Khattar on Wednesday also announced his resignation as the MLA from the Karnal assembly segment. "From today, our chief minister will look after the Karnal assembly constituency," he said, in an indication that the BJP might field Nayab Singh Saini in that seat.
Saini, who took oath as the chief minister on Tuesday, needs to be elected to the Assembly within six months.
The BJP list included Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal and Anurag Singh Thakur and BJP chief spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Anil Baluni. The BJP also fielded former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and former Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai.