​Manohar Lal Khattar who was replaced by Nayab Singh Saini on Tuesday as the chief minister of Haryana, months ahead of the assembly election in the state, joins a growing list of Bharatiya Jananta Party CMs changed before completing their tenure to make room for new faces.

Read here: Haryana twist: Nayab Saini replaces Khattar as CM, BJP cuts ties with JJP

Since 2021, the party has experimented with changing the incumbent CM with a new face to lead the party to polls, allowing it to shed anti-incumbency associated with the leadership. This is also in line with the party’s policy of allowing a generation shift, giving newer and preferable younger leaders a platform.

The 69-year old Khattar, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh functionary and an old associate of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was first appointed as CM in 2014.

Although low-key, he has been in the eye of the storm on more than one occasion, leading to speculation that he would be replaced. He rode out the storms — including protests over the issue of reservation for the dominant Jat community in 2016 or when supporters of Baba Ram Rahim resorted to violence and arson following his conviction for rape and murder — and did not lose the CM’s post even when the party failed to win the requisite number of seats to form Government in the state in 2019, but he could not survive the breakup in the party’s alliance with the Jananayak Janhit Party or the JJP coming just ahead of the Lok Sabha polls and months ahead of the assembly elections in the state later this year.

While there is speculation that he will be given a ticket to contest the LS Polls from Hisar in Haryana, some BJP leaders point out that his exit from the top job is in line with the party’s formula of going to polls with a new face.

In recent years, the BJP has changed at least four CMs ahead of polls to buck anti-incumbency, and tide over complaints of administrative deficiencies.

In Uttarakhand, where two CMs were changed within months to appoint a younger, Pushkar Singh Dhami.

In Gujarat, Vijay Rupani was replaced by Bhupendra Patel in September 2021, months ahead of the state elections. Rupani’s performance during the Covid pandemic was cited as a reason for the change.

Similar exercises were carried out in Karnataka and Tripura ahead of polls.

Biplab Deb was replaced as CM of Tripura in May 2022, nine months ahead of the assembly polls of 2023. He was replaced by Manik Saha, a dentist turned politician who led the party to victory in the 2023 polls. Deb who was appointed as CM following the BJP’s massive victory in 2018, is now the party’s candidate from Tripura Lok Sabha constituency.

Read here: From ML Khattar’s aide to Haryana CM: The rise of Nayab Saini

In Karnataka , the gamble of replacing the CM ahead of polls did not pay off. Sidestepping the opinion of party leaders in the state who were against changing Lingayat strongman BS Yediyurappa, the central leadership appointed BS Bommai as the CM in Karnataka in July 2021. The change did not have the desired consequence and the party lost the 2023 polls.