Unlike 2019 and 2014, the Lok Sabha elections in Haryana are shaping up to be a freer campaign this time around. Manohar Lal Khattar (69), who resigned as prime minister in March this year, will continue to campaign from his hometown of Karnal. But the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has chosen to count on OBC vote consolidation under Nayab Singh Saini, the current chief minister and the party’s new face in Haryana.
Qatar’s resignation was seen as a way to check anti-incumbency forces ahead of the Sabah state election. Of course, Prime Minister Narendra Modi continues to enjoy immense goodwill in the state, but this time the ‘Modi factor’ alone may not be enough for the party. Notably, three independent MPs withdrew their support to the Saini government yesterday and have now switched to the Congress.
Way list to Congress
But Congress also has its own challenges. The party last week appointed Raj Babbar as its candidate from Gurgaon and finalized its list of candidates for Haryana. But this announcement only exacerbated the rift within the party. While Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s camp appears to be making good progress in selecting candidates, the other camp, consisting of Seriya Kumari, Randeep Singh Surjewala and Kiran Chowdhury, remains in the lurch. ing.
Given that the state assembly polls are coming up just after the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress high command is not happy with Mr. Hooda, who has emerged as the tallest Jat leader in the state in the last decade. seems to be keen on preserving the
Apart from Brijendra Singh’s sidelining in Hisar, there is a conscious effort to avoid turning the elections into a ‘Jat vs. non-Jat’ contest, as the Bharatiya Janata Party wants it to be, hence the Congress list. There seems to be a way to post it. For example, unlike 2019, when the list of Congress candidates included four Jat names, this year’s list includes only two names from the community. Care has also been taken to appeal more to urban voters and field two Punjabis and one Brahmin in Sonipat. This strategy is clearly aimed at undermining the Bharatiya Janata Party’s appeal in these communities in Haryana.
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Apart from Babar’s candidacy, Sonipat’s Satpal Brahmachari and Karnal’s Divyansh Budhiraja (31-year-old Haryana Youth Congress president) were also selected as surprise candidates. In a nutshell, the Congress struck a clever balance by giving tickets to two Dalits, two Jats and two Punjabis, and one ticket each to Gujjars, Akhirs and Brahmins.
Jindal’s candidacy
Despite losing the Kurukshetra seat to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) (the name of Chief Minister and Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Gupta was announced before the nomination of the Congress candidate), the Indian bloc’s list includes Agarwal is also included. It is believed that the BJP has accepted Congress turncoat Navin Jindal as a direct response to Mr Gupta’s candidature. In addition to being from the same community, the two are also the wealthiest candidates in the fray, with their business empires spanning across the region.
There is another factor at play here, and that has to do with the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The embattled AAP convener is himself an Agarwal from Haryana, a community that accounts for more than 4% of the state’s population, and has recently warmed to him.
And then there’s Jindal.
Congress surrendered to Hudas.
It’s common sense not to put all your eggs in one basket. But the Congress seems to have done just that in Haryana. Among the nine candidates, Serya Kumari, who was fielded from Sirsa, is the only one not from the Hooda camp. Ambala candidate Varun Chaudhary, son of veteran leader Phule Chand Mulana, is accepted by all factions and is not actually a Hooda candidate.
Hooda not only managed to get all his supporters on the list but also ensured that veteran politician Birender Singh’s son Brijendra Singh was denied a ticket. Ironically, it was Mr Singh’s transfer from the Bharatiya Janata Party to the Congress that actually helped turn the tide for this great old party heading into the polls. Although he is a sure-fire candidate and a sitting member of parliament, Mr. Hooda’s grudge seems to be weighing heavily on him. That grudge goes back many years. It was because of Hooda’s resistance that Birender Singh, with whom he once had a bitter rival in the Congress, was refused a seat in Manmohan Singh’s cabinet in 2013 after being invited to the oath-taking ceremony. The incident ultimately led to his expulsion from Congress a year later. Now that he has been denied a ticket to Brijendra, Hooda seems intent on paving the way for his son Deepinder Hooda to take over as the undisputed leader of the Jat tribe in Haryana.
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Not only senior Huda but even junior Huda managed to get one of his supporters, young Budhiraja, on the Congress list. The decision did not go down well with several others eyeing his seat, including former Congress president Kuldeep Sharma’s son Chanakya Pandit, given that he will be facing off against Khattar.
Missing Ral family
Even if Hooda wanted to deny Brijendra Singh his due, there must have been a more honorable way. For example, the Congress could have made a surprise selection of former Deputy Prime Minister Chander Mohan, son of Bhajan Lal. This may have been described as a means to gain support from the disgruntled Kuldeep Bishnoi (chander Mohan’s younger brother) and the Bishnoi community at large.
Bishnoi, who was recently dropped from the BJP, was denied the Hisar seat. In such a scenario, the Congress could have fielded a second Jat leader (instead of Mahendar Pratap Singh), Karan Singh Dalal from Faridabad. As a result, Dalal loses his temper and goes into rebellion mode ever since Hooda claims to have guaranteed the ticket.
Alternatively, Shruti Chowdhury, Bansi Lal’s granddaughter, could remain as the second Jat candidate from the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seat.
After all, there are many names of the Devi Lal family in the list of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), JJP and the BJP, but this time we will talk about two Lal clans, Mr. Bhajan Lal and Mr. Bansi Lal. There is no representative.
BJP’s strategy; Survival questions for JJP
The BJP’s decision to replace Mr. Qatar with Mr. Saini was an admission that the state government may not have been as popular in a second term. The party is hopeful that the anti-incumbent elements will be neutralized to some extent after its split with Dushyant Chautala-led JJP. In any case, the JJP collapsed within days of losing power, and even state presidents along with many prominent leaders deserted the JJP. JJP’s Ajay Chhotala extended an olive branch to his parent party INLD, urging it to bury the machete, but to no avail.
The BJP’s list is not that surprising. Apart from Jindal, there are two more Congress turncoats this time: Ashok Tanwar from Sirsa and Ranjit Singh Chautala from the Devi Lal family. Chautala was nominated by Hisar a few days after joining the Bharatiya Janata Party. This means that out of the 10 candidates of the BJP, only four are originally from the company’s own stock.
While the Congress believes it has a good chance of winning a few seats in the state, the Bharatiya Janata Party believes it will be difficult to make up the lead it gained in 2014 and 2019. If the former blames the Modi government for its woes in 2014 and 2019, the BJP hopes the same factors will play out in India’s parliamentary elections this time as well. There may be many variables, but one thing is certain: Haryana is poised to witness a fierce contest in his 2024.
(Anand Kochukudi is a senior journalist and columnist.)
Disclaimer: These are the author’s personal opinions.
