Manohar Lal Khattar (born 5 May 1954) is an Indian politician who has been serving as the Minister of Power and

Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs The Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs is the head of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs of the Government of India since the ministry's formation on 6 July 2017 and is a member of the union council of ministers. The minister is respo ...

in the central Modi government since June 2024. A prominent leader 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. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

, he has served as the

10th Tenth may refer to: Numbers * 10th, the ordinal form of the number ten * One tenth, , or 0.1, a fraction, one part of a unit divided equally into ten parts. ** the SI prefix deci- ** tithe, a one-tenth part of something * 1/10 of any unit of me ...

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 ele ...

from 26 October 2014 until his resignation on 12 March 2024. In the

2024 Indian general election General elections were held in Elections in India, India from 2024 elections in India, 19 April to 1 June 2024 in seven phases, to elect all List of constituencies of the Lok Sabha, 543 members of the Lok Sabha. Votes were counted and the res ...

, he has been elected to the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...

, the

lower house A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise e ...

of the

Parliament of India The Parliament of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Government of India, Government of the Republic of India. It is a bicameralism, bicameral legislature composed of the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok ...

, from

Karnal Karnal () is a city located in the state of Haryana, India and is the administrative headquarters of Karnal District. The city is well connected as it lies on National Highway 01, in the south of the city lies the cities of Panipat and Sonipa ...

Haryana Haryana () is a States and union territories of India, state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out after the linguistic reorganisation of Punjab, India, Punjab on 1 November 1966. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with les ...

. While serving as Chief Minister, he has represented the

constituency in the

Haryana Legislative Assembly The Haryana Legislative Assembly (ISO: ''Hariyāṇā Vidhāna Sabhā'') is the unicameral legislature of the Indian state of Haryana. The seating of the assembly is at Chandigarh, the capital of the state. There are seats in the house fil ...

from 2014 to 2024. He has also been a

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

and has served as the Organizational General Secretary of the BJP in Haryana from 2000 to 2014.

Personal life

Khattar was born on 5 May 1954 in Nindana village of

Meham Meham, also spelled Maham, is a small city in Rohtak district of the Indian state of Haryana. It is one of the two sub-divisions in Rohtak district. As a tehsil, it is further divided into two community development blocks, Maham and Lakhan-Majr ...

tehsil in the

Rohtak district Rohtak district is a district in the Indian state of Haryana. It is located in the southeast of the state and northwest of Delhi, bounded by Jind and Sonipat districts to the north, Jhajjar and Sonipat districts to the east, and Hissar, C ...

East Punjab East Punjab was a state of Dominion of India from 1947 until 1950. It consisted parts of the Punjab Province of British India that remained in India following the partition of the state between the new dominions of Pakistan and India by the ...

, India into a

Punjabi Hindu Punjabi Hindus are adherents of Hinduism who identify ethnically, linguistically, culturally, and genealogically as Punjabis and are natives of the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent. Punjabi Hindus are the third-largest religious g ...

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

Jhang district Jhang District (Punjabi language, Punjabi and ) is a Districts of Pakistan, district of Faisalabad Division, Faisalabad division in the Punjab (Pakistan), Punjab province, Pakistan. Jhang is the capital and administrative seat of the district. ...

West Punjab West Punjab (; ) was a province in the Dominion of Pakistan from 1947 to 1955. It was established from the western-half of British Punjab, following the independence of Pakistan. The province covered an area of 159,344 km sq (61523 sq mi), i ...

following the

Partition of India The partition of India in 1947 was the division of British India into two independent dominion states, the Dominion of India, Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. The Union of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Paki ...

in 1947. His family initially settled in the Banyani

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

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 (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

College,

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 Nationa ...

. He then moved in with relatives in

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, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

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

University of Delhi The Delhi University (DU, ISO 15919, ISO: ), also and officially known as the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate research university, research Central university (India), central university located in Delhi, India. It ...

Political career

Khattar joined

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS,, ) is an Indian right-wing politics, right-wing, Hindutva, Hindu nationalist volunteer paramilitary organisation. It is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar ( ...

(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 17 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 2019 ...

. 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, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

candidate and

Deepender Singh Hooda Deepender Singh Hooda (born 4 January 1978) is an Indian politician. He is a five-term Member of Parliament from the Indian National Congress. He was elected as the Member of the Lok Sabha from Rohtak in 2024. He was also a 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 Ram Vilas Sharma (10 October 1912 – 30 May 2000) was a progressive literary critic, linguist, poet and thinker. He was born in Unchgaon Sani, Unnao District, Uttar Pradesh. In a career spanning nearly five decades, Sharma authored over 50 bo ...

, seconded by other strong Chief Minister of Haryana claimant

Rao Inderjeet Singh Rao Inderjit Singh (born 11 February 1951) is an Indian politician who is serving as the 17th Ministry of Planning (India), minister of Planning, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Statistics and Programme Implementation and mi ...

and supported by many

MLAs A Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected to sit in a legislative assembly. The term most commonly refers to members of the legislature of a federated state or an autonomous region, but is also used for several nationa ...

. 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 Dushyant Singh Chautala (born 3 April 1988) is an Indian politician who served as the 6th Deputy Chief Minister of Haryana from 2019 to 2024. He represented the Uchana Kalan constituency in Haryana Legislative Assembly from 2019 until 2024 ...

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 ser ...

post

2019 Haryana Legislative Assembly election Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number) * One of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (1987 film), a 1987 science fiction film * '' 19-Nineteen'', a 2009 South Korean film * '' Dici ...

. Khattar submitted his resignation to Haryana Governor

Bandaru Dattatreya Bandaru Dattatreya (born 12 June 1947) is an Indian politician serving as the current governor of the State of Haryana since 2021. He was also the 20th governor of Himachal Pradesh and was the member of Lok Sabha for Secunderabad from 2014 to 2 ...

on 12 March 2024 after the development came amid speculation of cracks emerging in the state's ruling BJP and

(JJP) coalition over seat sharing ahead of the

2024 Lok Sabha elections General elections were held in India from 19 April to 1 June 2024 in seven phases, to elect all 543 members of the Lok Sabha. Votes were counted and the result was declared on 4 June to form the 18th Lok Sabha. On 7 June 2024, Prime Ministe ...

, and on 13 March he tendered his resignation from the Haryana Legislative Assembly. Manohar Lal assuming charge as the Union Minister for Power

In March 2024, he was announced as the BJP candidate for the Karnal constituency in the

. Khattar subsequently won from the seat. In June 2024, Khattar was appointed the Minister of Power and

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 ...

, declaring

opposition to the partition of India Opposition to the partition of India was widespread in British Raj, 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 ...

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

German reunification German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the int ...

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 (BBBP), also known as Save the Daughter, Educate the Daughter Scheme is a flagship social campaign of the Government of India launched on 22 January 2015 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Panipat, Haryana. The scheme aims ...

scheme that was flagged off by India's Prime Minister

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician who has served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India since 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Par ...

. 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." Likewise, on 16 November 2018, he has stated, "The biggest concern is that in 80-90% of rapes and eve-teasing cases, the accused and the victim know each other. In many cases, they know each other for a long time, and on one day, when there is an argument,... an FIR is lodged, saying that this person has raped me." This evoked strong condemnation from the opposition. On 3 April 2023, he again stirred a controversy by making a remark that a " igh courtjudge needed to be "fixed". The opposition believes this is interference with the judiciary and have demanded an apology and that a contempt of court notice be issued against him.

References

External links

* {{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 Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Haryana Haryana MLAs 2019–2024 Punjabi Hindus India MPs 2024–2029