Captain Abhimanyu (Left) and ML Khattar are frontrunners for the post of Haryana Chief Minister
Haryana will know today who its next chief minister will be. The finalists in the race are said to be ML Khattar, an RSS activist, and Captain Abhimanyu, who was dispatched to Haryana by party president Amit Shah to help win the state.
Captain Abhimanyu could have been seen to enjoy that distinct advantage of being the Delhi leadership's top choice - Mr Shah had virtually endorsed him as the kind of CM Haryana needs during the campaign - but for one fact. He is a Jat.
Ordinarily, in a state where Jats have for long dominated politics as the single biggest chunk of voters, that is a big plus. But the BJP has a tricky situation at hand. It did not do well in Jat-dominated areas like Sirsa, Hisar, Bhiwandi and Jinda in south Haryana and performed very well elsewhere in the state.
Also, only six of the 25 Jat candidates it fielded won.
There is a clamour now from north Haryana that it must be rewarded for backing the BJP. They want a non-Jat this time.
Enter ML Khattar. The 60-year-old is an unmarried former RSS pracharak, who was deputed to the BJP many years ago. He was the chairman of the party's campaign committee for Haryana in the national elections. The party won seven of the state's 10 seats.
On Sunday, it extended that dominance to the assembly elections, winning 47 of Haryana's 90 seats, a clear mandate to form government. The BJP did not project a candidate for chief minister, building its campaign around the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The party credits the PM for its best performance in Haryana ever.
Apart from a shared RSS context, Mr Khattar has worked closely with Mr Modi when the latter had charge of the state. The PM began his Haryana campaign from Karnal, Mr Khattar's constituency.
On Tuesday afternoon, the newly elected legislators will formerly elect the CM. Both Mr Khattar and Capt Abhimanyu Singh Sindhu, a 47-year-old former Armyman who has been a national BJP spokesperson, say "the national leadership will decide."
There are other aspirants for the post like Anil Vij, Ram Bilas Sharma and central minister Rao Inderjit of Gurgaon, recently imported from the Congress.