NATION | Friday, August 14, 2009 | Email | Print |  | Back
Maya, Bhajan tie up, dissidence worries Haryana Congress
Nidhi Sharma | New Delhi
As the Congress is looking forward to elections in Haryana in October, there is anxiety within the ruling party over Mayawati’s alliance with Bhajan Lal and dissidence within the party.
Though the Congress swept nine of the 10 parliamentary seats, the central leadership is looking at the fine print of the victory in terms of Assembly segments. According to sources, the micro picture does not look very rosy, especially in light of BSP’s alliance with Bhajan Lal’s Haryana Janhit Congress. In six of the 10 parliamentary constituencies, BSP has polled over 1 lakh votes in the parliamentary elections. And in one of the seats it has crossed the 2-lakh mark.
These seats include Ambala (1.88 lakh), Kurukshetra (1.51 lakh), Karnal (2.28 lakh), Sonepat (1.12 lakh), Gurgaon (1.93 lakh) and Faridabad (1.13 lakh). There are two more seats where the BSP has almost reached the 1-lakh mark. These are Sirsa (76,000) and Hissar (90,000).
What has the Congress worried is the fact that the effect would be more pronounced in smaller Assembly segments.
BSP’s vote share has also increased three-fold since the 2004 Lok Sabha elections from almost 5 per cent to 15.74 per cent. With this increased vote share, BSP is almost neck and neck with INLD, which had a vote percentage of 15.77 per cent.
“The local Congress leaders feel that the main reason was that her party had projected Mayawati as the prime ministerial candidate, said a senior Congress leader. But this could be a cause of worry for the party as now she has tied up with Bhajan Lal, a Vaishanavi who has always represented non-Jats.” What could make the contest even more interesting is the presence of Majbi Sikhs, who are considered lower caste Sikhs, on these seats. The leader said: “This alliance could easily mean consolidation of Scheduled Caste votes.” While Scheduled Castes form 19 per cent of the State population, non-Jats are 50 per cent and Jats comprise 20 per cent.
The State coordination committee comprising senior Congress leaders would meet the State leadership on Tuesday in Chandigarh. This interaction would be with State unit office-bearers, executive committee members, district presidents, MLAs and MPs.
The central leadership also wants to address the problem of dissidence in the State. There is much heartburn against Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda amongst Haryana MPs like Kumari Selja and Indrajit Singh and State leaders Kiran Choudhry and Virendra Singh. Hooda’s opposition to Kiran Choudhry’s daughter Shruti getting a ticket from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh has obviously not gone down well with Kiran Choudhry. Similarly, Kumari Selja and Gurgaon MP Inderjit Singh are well-known critics of the Chief Minister.
The central leadership is quite wary of this opposition as it feels this might harm Congress prospects in the State. The coordination committee meeting on Tuesday would address all these possibilities and also gauge the ground situation before the final candidates are decided.
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