After months of frequent visits to Punjab — ranging from religious shrines and political conferences to bypoll campaigns and party inductions — Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on Monday created a stir by reaching the Vidhan Sabha and presenting the Budget for 2026–27 while sporting a saffron turban.

As he entered the House, the treasury benches greeted him with chants of "Jo Bole So Nihal".

On his part, Saini, during the budget presentation, invoked the Sikh principles of 'Kirat karo, naam japo, vand chhako' (earn by honest work, meditate, share with others) given by Guru Nanak.

He also invoked Sant Ravidass.

Asked if by donning the turban he was trying to give a political message, Saini dismissed the suggestion.

“It does not have any political undertones.

I wear a turban from time to time; I wore it yesterday and I have worn it today as well.

This is a play of my emotions, and people like it,” Saini said.

He insisted that the gesture should not be linked to his recent visits to Punjab, telling The Indian Express: “It’s not that I wore a turban today only.

I have been wearing it for a long time.

Today I am Chief Minister, but I used to wear a turban earlier too.

You can see my earlier photographs for the same.” The symbolism, however, was not lost with political experts linking it to the Assembly elections that are due in the neighbouring Punjab in February 2027.

Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring said, "If he (Saini) believes that by sporting a turban he would appeal to a particular section of the Punjabis, he is badly mistaken." Warring asserted that Punjabis have never voted along communal lines and they never will.

He warned the BJP against trying to inject the Punjab polity with its "communal venom".

"Punjabis can neither be lured by your (BJP) communal politics nor the theatrics", he said, adding that this only shows how far removed the BJP and its leaders are from the ground reality in Punjab.

Warring pointed out that Saini has been made a poster boy by the BJP for Punjab ahead of the 2027 Assembly elections.

"He is seen more in Punjab than in Haryana," he said, adding that Saini will need to answer several questions that people of Punjab have in mind, as there is the contentious issue of water pending between the two states.

"What shall be his stand on that?"....