Born in Rohtak district, Khattar, a bachelor who once wanted to become a doctor, had contested the first Assembly elections from Karnal wher he won by a margin of 63,736 votes.
He joined RSS as a full-time ‘pracharak’ in 1980 and after 14 years of service to the Sangh, Khattar was moved to BJP as party general secretary in Haryana in 1994.
Apart from his crucial role in the party’s success in states like Punjab, Haryana and Chhattisgarh, he was given prominent roles in various elections in different states where he always delivered results.
Bhajan Lal was the last non-Jat Chief Minister who held office from 1991 to 1996. After his exit Bansi Lal, Om Parkash Chautala (twice) and Bhupinder Singh Hooda (twice) were the Chief Ministers.
Earlier, B D Sharma, Rao Birender Singh, B D Gupta and Bhajan Lal were the other non-Jat Chief Ministers of Haryana, which was carved out as a separate state in 1966.
In the October 15 assembly polls, the saffron party won 47 seats while the rest were shared by INLD (19), Congress (15) and HJC-BL (2). BSP and SAD got one seat each while five were won by Independents.