Manohar Lal Khattar, who resigned as Haryana chief minister a day ago, paving the way for party colleague Nayab Singh Saini, was on Wednesday named by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as its candidate from the state’s Karnal constituency for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Khattar, who will now contest his maiden Lok Sabha election, took to X (formerly Twitter) to thank prime minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief JP Nadda.

“I express my gratitude to the respected prime minister Shri @narendramodi ji and the honourable national president Shri @JPNadda ji for declaring me as the BJP candidate from Karnal Lok Sabha seat. Under Modi ji’s leadership, we will work with full devotion and dedication towards achieving the goal of making India a developed country by 2047 by winning 400 seats,” he wrote in Hindi (rough translation).

Also, the politician, 70, thanked the people of Haryana for their ‘love and blessings’ when he was their chief minister.

“I am fully confident that you will give me the same love and affection for Lok Sabha as you did when I was your MLA from Karnal,” the BJP leader posted.

That Khattar will be fielded in general elections was evident earlier in the day, when, shortly after Haryana’s new government passed floor test, he declared his resignation from the Karnal assembly seat. The incumbent MP from here is the saffron party’s Sanjay Bhatia.

On Wednesday, the BJP released its second list, naming candidates for 72 seats, including Khattar from Karnal. Two other ex-CMs featured on the list: Karnataka’s Basavaraj Bommai (Haveri) and Uttarakhand’s Trivendra Singh Rawat (Haridwar).

Khattar was the party’s first chief minister in Haryana, where he headed back-to-back governments. In the 2019 general elections, the BJP bagged all 10 parliamentary seats in the state.