Dr Archana Gupta, the newly appointed Haryana BJP president, formally assumed charge on Wednesday in Panchkula, Haryana. Those present at the swearing-in ceremony included CM Nayab Singh Saini, national vice-president of the party Soudan Singh, national secretary Om Prakash Dhankar, and state incharge Dr Satish Poonia.
Union minister Rao Inderjit Singh, MPs Subhash Barala, Sanjay Bhatia, Kartikeya Sharma, and Rekha Sharma—along with various ministers, MLAs, party office-bearers, and workers—extended their congratulations. Known for his characteristic candour, Rao Inderjit Singh said, “Archanaji, you have inherited a ‘paki-pakayi kheti’ (ready-to-harvest crop). You won’t have to toil too hard; however, it is essential that you accord due respect to party workers and leaders. If everyone continues to receive the respect they deserve, there is no reason why the BJP should not return to power for a fourth consecutive term.”
Offering a word of caution, Dhankar remarked: “When an individual ascends to a high office, their mindset often tends to become narrow. Replace your sense of ‘I’ with Nayab Singh Saini’s sense of ‘we’.”
He said during his tenure as the national president of the Kisan Morcha, he would frequently receive grand receptions at various locations, including places where people did not know who he was. “Seeing this, I would remind myself that this respect is accorded not to the individual, but to the office they hold,” he said.
Poonia, meanwhile, took light-hearted digs at all present—from the CM to the Rajya Sabha MPs, and had the audience in splits. “I will not delve into any profound wisdom, for I have entrusted the entire ‘quota of knowledge’ to the CM. He typically arrives with five or six pages of material on behalf of the government,” he said, drawing guffaws from the crowd. In response, Saini—seated on the dais—gestured playfully to indicate, “Not today, I haven’t brought them along.”
Just then, Vij arrived at the ceremony, sporting his spectacles. “Now that is what I call a grand ‘heavyweight’ entry!” Poonia quipped.
Taking a dig at the three Rajya Sabha members seated on the dais—Sanjay Bhatia, Rekha Sharma, and Kartikeya Sharma—he remarked, “The BJP has put an end to the unemployment of these three individuals remarkably quickly. There was a time when securing even a single Rajya Sabha seat for the BJP was an incredibly arduous task.”
Saini said PM Modi, BJP national president Nitin Nabin, Home Minister Amit Shah, and the top leadership had placed the party’s flag in the hands of Dr Gupta. “Gupta will carry this flag forward, and all of us stand firmly behind her,” he said.
