The BJP on Friday appointed Lok Sabha MP Nayab Singh Saini, belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBC), its Haryana unit president in place of Om Prakash Dhankar as the party prepares for the Lok Sabha elections next year to be followed by the state assembly polls.

A party communication said Mr Dhankar, a Jat, has been appointed a national secretary of the party.

The appointment of Mr Saini, 53, a first-time MP representing Kurukshetra in the Lok Sabha, may help the party strengthen its hold among the OBC community as the support of Jats, who are the most populous community in the state, is largely seen to be divided among the Congress, Jannayak Janta Party and the Indian National Lok Dal.

The BJP is already in alliance with the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), whose leader Dushyant Chautala is the state’s deputy chief minister.

Mr Dhankar was appointed Haryana BJP chief in July 2020 and completed his tenure in July this year.

Mr Saini, who has been campaigning in Rajasthan, is considered a confidant of Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar. He was also a minister in the previous Khattar cabinet and was a legislator when he fought the Lok Sabha polls in 2019.

In 2019, the BJP had won all 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana. with party candidates winning with massive margins.

“Congratulations to Nayab Singh Saini for the responsibility of state president”, the outgoing state unit chief Dhankar posted on X.

Shortly before the BJP central leadership appointed the new state unit chief, Mr Dhankar was asked by reporters in Chandigarh on Friday whether a change could be expected since his term as state unit chief had come to an end in July.

Replying to this, Mr Dhankar said change is a natural process in a national party like the BJP and referred to recent appointments in the party’s Punjab and Chandigarh unit.

No one is permanent here, Mr Dhankar, who is also a former Haryana minister, said.

A BJP worker is always prepared to take up any responsibility and role given to him, he said.

This is not a family-based party. It is a national party in which change from booth unit incharge to national president is a natural process, he said.

Hamas officials visiting Moscow were quoted by Russian media on Friday as saying the terrorist group viewed all its hostages as Israelis, whatever additional passports they held, and could not release any of them until Israel agreed to a ceasefire.

Hamas Politburo member Abu Marzouk told state news agency RIA that Russia, the United States, France, Spain, Italy and many others had appealed for the release of their nationals from among more than 200 hostages that Hamas seized in a cross-border rampage into Israel on Oct. 7.

He said Hamas viewed Moscow’s request “more positively and attentively than the others, given the character of our relations with Russia”.

RIA quoted him as saying that Hamas did not view its captives as Russian, French or American. “All those captured, for us, are Israelis, although there is an appeal to their original citizenship in the hope this will save them,” he said.

Another member of the delegation, Abu Hamid, told Kommersant newspaper that Hamas needed time to locate all those taken to Gaza by various Palestinian factions in the Oct. 7 attacks that killed 1,400 people.

Russia’s ambassador to Israel said this week that three Russian-Israeli citizens were thought to be among the hostages.

Israel said on Wednesday that more than half the hostages held by Hamas have foreign passports from 25 different countries. Many were believed to have had dual Israeli nationality, however some almost certainly did not.

Russia on Friday defended its decision to invite the Hamas delegation to Moscow against strong Israeli criticism, saying it was necessary to maintain contacts with all sides in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Israel, which has vowed to wipe out Hamas in retaliation for the Oct. 7 attack, has described the decision as “deplorable” and urged Moscow to expel the delegation.

Maintaining Contacts

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Hamas delegation had met with representatives of Russia’s foreign ministry but not with President Vladimir Putin or Kremlin officials.

“We consider it necessary to continue our contacts with all parties and, of course, we will continue our dialogue with Israel,” he told reporters.

Russia has ties to all the key players in the Middle East, including Israel, Iran, Syria, Hamas, and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority which exercises limited self-rule under Israeli military occupation in the West Bank.

It has repeatedly blamed the crisis on a failure of US diplomacy.

Russia’s embassy in Israel issued a statement in which it reiterated Moscow’s call for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages held by Hamas and the delivery of humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza, which Israel is heavily bombarding ahead of an expected ground invasion. Officials in Gaza say more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed.

Dimitry Peskov ruled out any risk of Russia being drawn into the conflict after US fighter jets on Friday struck weapons and ammunition facilities in Syria in retaliation for attacks on US forces by Iranian-backed militia.

But he added that the US strikes would further stoke tensions across the region. “This is very bad,” he said.

Karnataka Minister MB Patil on Friday said there are demands to rename Vijayapura district after 12th-century social reformer Basaveshwara (Basavanna), and added that there is nothing wrong in renaming the entire state of Karnataka as ‘Basava Nadu’ (land of Basava).

The remarks of the state’s Large and Medium Industries Minister came days after Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar’s proposal to rename Ramanagara district as ‘Bengaluru South’.

“During the ‘Hoysala’ period, the region was known as Vijayapura, later under Adil Shahi dynasty’s rule, it became Bijapur. The name was changed back to Vijayapura. Now, many people have demanded that it be renamed as Basaveshwara district. It is natural as this district is the birthplace of Basavanna, and there is nothing wrong in it,” Mr Patil, who represents the Bableshwar constituency in Vijayapura district, said. 

Speaking to reporters here, he said, “There are some technical issues though. Bijapur became Vijayapura, and if it has to become Basaveshwara, there will be some inconvenience, as a change in nomenclature will have to be done in a lot of places. There are such concerns raised. I will discuss with the chief minister and after considering pros and cons, we will decide.” 

With the union government giving its approval to change the names of 12 cities in Karnataka, including its capital from Bangalore to Bengaluru in 2014, Bijapur came to be known as Vijayapura.

Responding to a question regarding his opinion about renaming Karnataka as ‘Basava Nadu’, Mr Patil said, “It’s natural, what’s wrong in it? It was Basavanna who gave ‘Anubhava Mantapa’, the first Parliament of the world. He gave the social concept. We keep saying that our land should become ‘Basava Nadu’ and that we must embrace ‘Basava Samskruti’.”

He said there are also demands to declare Basavanna as Karnataka’s cultural icon or leader. 

“There are also demands to name the entire metro rail network (in Bengaluru) after Basaveshwara. Similarly, the Vijayapura airport must be named after him. Will discuss with the chief minister and take an appropriate decision.” 

One of Karnataka’s politically dominant communities – the Lingayats – which is said to constitute about 17 per cent of the state’s population, finds its origins with Basavanna. Though the community is spread across the state, it is predominant in the North Karnataka region. Mr Patil belongs to this community.