As Khattar now trumps him in Union Cabinet, Rao Inderjit camp plays for Assembly poll gains

Rao (73) has served as a Union Minister of State since Narendra Modi’s first term as Prime Minister, and is currently MoS (Independent Charge) in the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, and MoS, Culture.

A Congress-turned BJP leader, Rao, incidentally, was an MoS in the UPA government too between 2004 and 2009.

(L-R) Gurgaon MP Rao Inderjit Singh, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Manohar Lal Khattar. (Express archives)

Rao joked once: “Probably, I am the longest-serving MoS in history, becoming MoS time and again.”

Intensifying his political activities, Rao has started holding meetings in Hisar district and building pressure for a ticket for his daughter Aarti, a member of the BJP State Executive, for the coming Assembly polls. Aarti had been an aspirant in 2019 too, but was not fielded then.

Expressing her desire to contest, Aarti has said: “From where and how I will contest the polls, time will tell. I am willing to contest from any seat, including Nangal Chaudhary, Ateli, Narnail, Kosli and Rewari.”

“If Rao will not be projected as the CM face, at least Aarti should be projected as Deputy CM as the Yadavs play a significant role in at least 22 Assembly seats,” a family supporter demands.

Talking of “groupism” in the BJP, Rao says: “Every party has it. There is groupism in the Congress too and I have been a victim of it. Here too, it exists. The BJP is (comparatively) a new party in the state and with time, groupism will grow in it too.”

The list of complaints of Rao’s supporters runs long, who claim a sustained attempt to sideline the leader with considerable influence in the NCR-Gurgaon region,

They question why he was not considered as a replacement for Khattar, when the BJP brought in Nayab Singh Saini, Khattar’s protege, as CM in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls. The party made the move in the face of anger within the Jat community over the wrestlers’ protest as well as farmer issues. The Sainis are fewer in number in the state than the Yadavs, the community to which Rao belongs, the latter’s supporters point out.

“Being one of the senior-most leaders of the party in the state, he (Rao) should have been projected as the CM,” one of his supporters says.

In 2014 too, when the BJP formed its first-ever government in Haryana, Rao had lost out to Khattar for the CM’s post. This was despite the widespread belief that the BJP’s prospects were boosted by Rao’s switch, which had “opened the floodgates” for more Congress leaders like Chaudhary Birender Singh and Bhiwani-Mahendragarh MP Dharambir Singh to jump ship.

In 2019 again, Rao’s supporters were hopeful, but Khattar was repeated to lead the coalition government, including Dushyant Chautala’s Jannayak Janata Party (JJP).

Rao’s camp also cites the promotion of his critics such as Arvind Yadav and Randhir Kapriwas under Khattar. Yadav is the Haryana Tourism Corporation Chairman.

On Rao missing out on a Union Cabinet post again, Yadav says several factors need to be balanced while forming the Union ministry, and that this time, the BJP accommodated three out of its five newly elected MPs from Haryana. “It is the prerogative of the PM to allot portfolios. Krishan Pal Gurjar (MP from another NCR region, Faridabad) has also become an MoS for the third time,” he says.

While Kapriwas left the BJP in 2019 after he was denied a ticket for the Assembly polls, lost as an Independent from the Rewari seat, and returned to the party only in February this year, he argues that he has a better claim on party posts than Rao. “I have been contesting elections on a BJP ticket since 2003, even when defeat was certain. On the other hand, he (Rao) joined the BJP in 2014 when there was a Modi wave and the ship of Congress was sinking,” he says.

Belonging to the erstwhile family that ruled Ahirwal kingdom – spread over present day Rewari, Mahendragarh, Gurgaon and parts of Bhiwani, Dadri, Nuh, Jhajjar and Rajasthan’s Alwar – Rao is the son of former Haryana CM Rao Birender Singh.

In August 2021, in what was seen as another setback to Rao, senior BJP leader and Cabinet minister Bhupender Yadav was chosen to lead the party’s Jan Ashirwad Yatra, along with Khattar, in the Ahirwal region. A month later, the Union MoS, in a show of strength, organised the “Shaheedi Diwas Samaroh” in Jhajjar, with six BJP MLAs from the state in attendance.

Months later, Rao was dropped from the BJP’s National Executive. The following year, a leaders from the state – former MP Sudha Yadav – was inducted into the BJP’s central election committee. Sudha was subsequently also included in the BJP’s Parliamentary Board, its highest decision-making body.