Manohar Lal Khattar (born 05 May 1954) is an Indian politician serving as the

10th 10 (ten) is the even natural number following 9 and preceding 11. Ten is the base of the decimal numeral system, by far the most common system of denoting numbers in both spoken and written language. It is the first double-digit number. The re ...

and current

chief minister of Haryana The Chief Minister of Haryana is the chief executive of the Indian state of Haryana. As per the Constitution of India, the governor is a state's ''de jure'' head, but ''de facto'' executive authority rests with the chief minister. Following elec ...

. He is a member of the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the List of ruling p ...

(BJP) and a former

RSS pracharak The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ( ; , , ) is an Indian right-wing, Hindu nationalist, paramilitary volunteer organisation. The RSS is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar ( Hindi for "Sangh famil ...

. He represents

Karnal Karnal ( is a city located in the state of Haryana, India and is the administrative headquarters of Karnal District. It was used by East India Company army as a refuge during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 in Delhi. The Battle of Karnal between ...

constituency in

Haryana Legislative Assembly The Haryana Legislative Assembly or the Haryana Vidhan Sabha is the unicameral state legislature of Haryana state in India. The seat of the Vidhan Sabha is at Chandigarh, the capital of the state. The Vidhan Sabha comprises 90 Members of ...

. He was sworn in for the first time as

Chief Minister of Haryana The Chief Minister of Haryana is the chief executive of the Indian state of Haryana. As per the Constitution of India, the governor is a state's ''de jure'' head, but ''de facto'' executive authority rests with the chief minister. Following elec ...

on 26 October 2014 after BJP's win in the

2014 Haryana Legislative Assembly election A general election was held on 15 October 2014 to elect 90 members of the Haryana Legislative Assembly. The term of previous assembly elected in 2009 was to expire on 27 October 2014. The results were announced on 19 October. The BJP won the m ...

. He was sworn in a second time as the chief minister on 27 October 2019 after making an alliance with

Jannayak Janta Party The Jannayak Janta Party, abbreviated as, JJP is an Indian state-level political party in Haryana, India. JJP is a recognized state political party. JJP was founded on 9 December 2018 by Dushyant Chautala with the ideology of Devi Lal, who ...

post-2019 Haryana Legislative Assembly election with Dushyant Chautala as his deputy chief minister.

Personal life

Khattar was born on 5 May 1954 in Nindana village of Meham

tehsil A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its adminis ...

in Rohtak district of Haryana, in a

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

Arora Arora is a community of Punjab, comprising both Hindus and Sikhs. The name is derived from their native place Aror. Historically, the Arora section of the Khatri community had been principally found in West Punjab, in the districts to the sou ...

family. His father, Harbans Lal Khattar, had migrated to the village from

Jhang Jhang ( Punjabi, ur, ), ) is the capital city of Jhang District, in the central portion of the province of Punjab, Pakistan. Situated on the east bank of the Chenab river, it is the 18th largest city of Pakistan by population. The histori ...

district of

West Punjab West Punjab ( pnb, ; ur, ) was a province in the Dominion of Pakistan from 1947 to 1955. The province covered an area of 159,344 km2 (61523 sq mi), including much of the current Punjab province and the Islamabad Capital Territory, but exclu ...

following the

Partition of India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: India and Pakistan. T ...

in 1947. His family initially settled in the Banyani

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

Rohtak Rohtak () is a city and the administrative headquarters of the Rohtak district in the Indian state of Haryana. It lies north-west of New Delhi and south of the state capital Chandigarh on NH 9(old NH 10). Rohtak forms a part of the National ...

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivision ...

and took up farming. Khattar completed his matriculation (final year of high school) from Pandit Neki Ram Sharma

Government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government i ...

College,

. He then moved to

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

, and ran a shop near Sadar Bazar while completing his bachelor's degree from

University of Delhi Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and is recognized as an Institute of Eminence (IoE ...

Political career

Khattar joined

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ( ; , , ) is an Indian right-wing, Hindu nationalist, paramilitary volunteer organisation. The RSS is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar (Hindi for "Sangh family ...

(RSS) in 1977 and became a full-time pracharak three years later. As a pracharak, he is a lifelong bachelor. He worked as a full-time pracharak for 14 years before moving to BJP, in 1994. During 2000–2014, Khattar was Organizational General Secretary of the BJP in Haryana. during his tenure the state unit was also started a publication of
Bhajpa Ki Baat
' magazine in October 2000. He was the Chairman of BJP's Haryana Election Campaign Committee for

2014 Lok Sabha Elections General elections were held in India in nine phases from 7 April to 12 May 2014 to elect the members of the 16th Lok Sabha. With 834 million registered voters, they were the largest-ever elections in the world until being surpassed by the 201 ...

. Subsequently, he became a member of BJP's National Executive Committee. In 2014, Khattar was nominated as BJP's candidate from Karnal constituency for the Haryana Legislative Assembly election, 2014. The party's workers and supporters in Karnal launched a signature campaign, asking the party leadership to field a local candidate instead of him. His opponent, the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...

candidate and

Deepender Singh Hooda Deepender Singh Hooda (born 4 January 1978) is an Indian politician and four-term MP from the Indian National Congress, who is the current Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha representing Haryana. He also served three terms as Member of Parliamen ...

, accused Khattar of being an "outsider" not native to Karnal. But Modi wave helped Mr. Khattar win elections by heavy margin. In the elections, the BJP gained a majority in Haryana for the first time, and Khattar won his maiden election by a margin of 63,736 votes. During a party meeting, his name was proposed for the

post by Haryana BJP President Ram Bilas Sharma, seconded by other strong Chief Minister of Haryana claimant Rao Inderjeet Singh and supported by many

MLAs The Max Launch Abort System (MLAS) was a proposed alternative to the Maxime Faget-invented "tractor" launch escape system (LES) that was planned for use by NASA for its Orion spacecraft in the event an Ares I malfunction during launch requir ...

. He became the BJP's first Chief Minister of Haryana after his swearing-in ceremony on 26 October 2014. On 27 October 2019, Khattar was sworn in as the chief minister for the second time, after making an alliance with Dushyant Chautala's

post

2019 Haryana Legislative Assembly election Legislative Assembly election was held in Haryana on 21 October 2019 to elect 90 members of the Haryana Legislative Assembly. The final voter turnout was recorded at 68.20%. The results were announced on 24 October 2019. The Bharatiya Janata ...

Major initiatives

Police reforms

Khattar announced that Haryana will have an all-woman police station in each district and around 500 woman constables will be recruited. He also started a 24×7 portal called ''Harsamay'' through which anybody can file a complaint online. He has also suggested that Yoga to be a part of police constables training to help keep the police personnel mentally and physically fit. According to media reports, Khattar has said that Police recruitments would be made on Transparent Recruitment Policy (TRP) and 3,060 new houses would be constructed for police personnel at a cost of Rs 550 crore in next three years.

E-governance

Manohar Lal Khattar has introduced e-services through Common Service Centres including biometric attendance system in all the government offices through which attendance of all officers will be available online and monitored.

Indian reunification

In July 2022, Manohar Lal Khattar championed the cause of

Indian reunification Indian reunification refers to the potential reunification of India (the Republic of India) with Pakistan and Bangladesh, which were partitioned from British India in 1947. Background In 1947, British India was partitioned into the modern D ...

, declaring

opposition to the partition of India Opposition to the partition of India was widespread in British India in the 20th century and it continues to remain a talking point in South Asian politics. Those who opposed it often adhered to the doctrine of composite nationalism. The Hindu, ...

. Khattar likened the present divisions in the Indian subcontinent to those of East and West Germany, which were dissolved with

German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

in the 1990s.

Women's empowerment

Manohar Lal Khattar's Government has been in news for taking steps to implement

Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Yojana Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao ( Save the Daughter, Educate the Daughter) is a campaign launched by the Government of India. It mainly targets the clusters in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Bihar and Delhi. Background The child sex rati ...

scheme that was flagged off by India's Prime Minister

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...

. The child gender ratio has been improved in Haryana since he assumed power. It is now 889 girls per 1,000 boys. "Efforts are being made to further take it (child gender ratio) to above 900," Khattar has said in a public statement.

Construction of memorial

Manohar Lal Khattar has publicly declared that his government will build a memorial to mark the sacrifice of Garud Commando Gursewak Singh, who was killed in a terrorist attack in Pathankot.

Controversies

Manohar Lal Khattar is criticised for his remarks on rape and women issues. During his election campaign for 2014 polls in India, he said: "If they (women) want freedom, why don't they just roam around naked? Freedom has to be limited."

References

External links

Official Website of Manohar Lal Khattar

Government of Haryana, Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Khattar, Manohar Lal 1954 births Living people Chief ministers from Bharatiya Janata Party Delhi University alumni Chief Ministers of Haryana Hindu activists Indian Hindus People from Rohtak district Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh pracharaks Haryana MLAs 2014–2019 Punjabi people Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Haryana Haryana MLAs 2019–2024