New Haryana chief minister Nayab Singh Saini on Wednesday comfortably won a vote of confidence in the assembly by a voice vote, stabilising his government a day after his dramatic induction following the resignation of his mentor, Manohar Lal Khattar.

With 78 members present in the 90-member House, the speaker put the motion of confidence to a voice vote. The BJP enjoyed the support of its 41 members and the support of six independents and a lawmaker from a smaller party, above the majority mark of 46.

Ten legislators of the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), the BJP’s former ally who broke ties on Tuesday morning triggering the crisis, were absent during the voice vote, although five of them attended the House briefly, leaving before the voting commenced. The JJP issued a whip asking its legislators to stay away from the House during the voting on the confidence motion.

Saini said he came from a humble background and felt honoured that the party made him chief of the state unit and now CM. “An ordinary party member like me was appointed state BJP president. Now I have been entrusted with the big responsibility as chief minister. This can only happen in the BJP,” Saini said.

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“From today, our chief minister will look after the Karnal assembly constituency (AC),” Khattar said, appearing to indicate that Saini would now take care of the AC. Later in the evening, the BJP released its second list for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, fielding Khattar from the Karnal Lok Sabha seat.

In the 90-member House, the JJP has 10 members, the Congress 30, and Haryana Lokhit Party (HLP) and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) one each, and there are seven independents.

The crisis began early on Tuesday after the entire Haryana cabinet resigned along with Khattar following the break-up with the JJP. In the evening, five ministers were sworn in – BJP’s Kanwar Pal (Jagadhari), Mool Chand Sharma (Ballabhgarh), Jai Parkash Dalal (Loharu) and Banwari Lal (Bawal), and Independent MLA Ranjit Singh Chautala (Rania) – along with Saini. The new CM can accommodate at least eight more ministers.

The move to part ways is believed to have been triggered by disagreement over seat-sharing for the summer’s Lok Sabha elections; the BJP , which has 10 incumbent MPs in all 10 parliamentary constituencies in the state was unwilling to share Lok Sabha seats with the JJP.

JJP’s Dushyant Chautala said on Wednesday that they were following the principles of “alliance dharma” by preparing for two parliamentary seats – Bhiwani-Mahendergarh and Hisar – adding that everyone knows what decision the BJP made in the end. The split between the two parties is said to have been triggered by disagreement over seat-sharing for the Lok Sabha elections; the BJP, which has 10 incumbent MPs in all 10 parliamentary constituencies in the state was unwilling to share Lok Sabha seats with the JJP.

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

It is believed that Khattar’s handling of the ongoing farm protests — the Haryana police has sought to prevent the farmers from crossing over from Punjab into the state en route Delhi, and on February 21, a farmer was shot dead — did not go down well with the dominant Jat population in the state. That and the prospect of going into election season with a two-term CM may have prompted the BJP to effect the change, analysts said.

The near four-hour long noisy proceedings of the House were marked by sharp exchanges after Leader of the Opposition, Bhupinder Singh Hooda Bhupinder Singh Hooda launched a volley of attacks. The Congress demanded “secret voting” to decide the fate of Saini government. Hooda described Saini as “a night watchman” and Congress’ deputy leader Aftab Ahmed said BJP was running a “jod tod ki sarkar”.

Speaker Gian Chand Gupta, however, declined the plea. During the debate, Congress MLAs said the break up of the alliance was an eyewash and the change in leadership was an attempt by the BJP to fight anti-incumbency.

At a rally in Hisar, JJP’s Dushyant Chautala said he recently met BJP national president JP Nadda, who told him that the “BJP can only offer the Rohtak parliamentary seat the JJP.”

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“I told Nadda that we are preparing on two seats, Hisar and Bhiwani-Mahendergarh. I narrated the entire conversation to JJP national chief Ajay Chautala who asked me to tell Nadda that we will not seek any seat till the BJP agrees to increase the monthly pension of elderly persons to ₹5,100. I conveyed our party chief’s message to Nadda, and the next day the alliance was snapped,” he added.

He criticised the party’s five rebel MLAs and he claimed that it was difficult to work with them. “Out of 10 MLAs, five were our workers and five came from other parties. Our five MLAs are standing with Ajay like a rock and the outsiders have gone. I advise former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda not to trust these five rebel MLAs as they can betray any time,” he added.

Hooda, said for the first time, a political party issued a whip to its MLAs to remain absent from the House. “What does this mean? This only shows that the BJP and the JJP are hand in glove…People of Haryana know what both are upto. Change of faces won’t help much,” Hooda said.