Manohar Lal Khattar is new Haryana chief minister

BJP leader and former RSS member Manohar Lal Khattar will be the next Haryana CM

BJP leader Manohar Lal Khattar will be the next chief minister of Haryana. Khattar was elected as CM after a meeting of the party's 47 MLAs who won seats in the recently-concluded state Assembly elections. 

Both Khattar and Capt. Abhimanyu had been considered frontrunners in the CM race, but Khattar, who is a former member of the the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, was the final choice. Abhimanyu, on the other hand, was a strong Jat leader who reportedly had the backing of BJP national president Amit Shah. 

Khattar a Punjabi by origin, is stated to be close to both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah.

The meeting was chaired by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu and party vice president Dinesh Sharma, who were been appointed observers by the BJP's Parliamentary Board for deciding on who will be the CM of Haryana.

The new chief minister will likely be sworn in October 22, a day before Diwali. 

Haryana, after its creation in 1966, has been governed primarily by leaders from the dominant Jat community, including Bansi Lal, Devi Lal, Om Parkash Chautala and Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Non-Jat leaders who have occupied the CM's chair include Bhajan Lal, Bhagwat Dyal Sharma and Banarsi Das Gupta.