It will be ‘national' issues of BJP Vs ‘local’ issues of Cong, other parties

Sunday, 22 September 2019 | Amitabh Shukla | Chandigarh

It will be ‘national' issues of BJP Vs ‘local’ issues of Cong, other parties

Sunday, 22 September 2019 | Amitabh Shukla | Chandigarh

It will be a battle between national issues versus local issues in Haryana. Ruling BJP in the state will go to the October 21 polls with the slogan of "delivery" of long pending issues by the Narendra Modi government at the Centre while for Congress and other regional parties in the fray, it will be local issues with which they will try to woo the electorate.

BJP has given a slogan "Mission 75 plus" in the state even as the Opposition dubs it as a mere slogan devoid of ground realities. They also ridicule the BJP for milking national issues to the hilt saying the party has performed miserably in the state and has nothing to bank on except issues like abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, NRC in Assam and triple talaq.

The five years of Manohar Lal Khattar government in the state has been uneventful despite the government boasting of "unprecedented development in every nook and corner" of the state without any regional discrimination. As Haryana has been a well governed state for a while, political observers find little merit in BJP's argument of sustained development. "There was precious little to do in Haryana as the state had already touched all the developmental parameters when BJP came to power," said a senior Haryana watcher. He added that it was only "cosmetic changes" with a road here and a railway line there type of approach of the government.

Of course, educated elected panchayats became a reality with the Khattar government setting educational standards for the election of village panchyats. Then, any big ticket corruption has been ruled out in the five years as the RSS pracharak Khattar assumed office due to the blessings of Modi and he did not have any family or high command baggage to cater to.

As only a month is left for the October 21 battle, it is clear that the main battle this time round will be between the BJP and Congress. While the main opposition of 2014, INLD has practically withered away, its place has been taken by the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) to some extent. However, being an assembly elections where the interplay of caste, community and region would be much more than Lok Sabha polls, JJP and INLD candidates could be the spoilers in several constituencies. However, ask any Haryana expert and they will tell you that the fight is basically for the third position and the JJP seems to be inching its way to achieve it.

Of course parties like BSP, AAP and Swaraj India party will be in the fray but at present it seems to be more of a statistical presence rather than an electoral one as they are devoid of grassroots level support.

Not happy with the BJP raising issues like Article 370, Triple Talaq, NRC, etc, the opposition is targeting the party on record Unemployment, economic crisis in the state as well as the country, farmer distress, dissatisfied government employees and also under-performance in all spheres of governance.

In its publicity blitzkrieg and the campaign before the model code of conduct came into force, the ruling party consistently focused on transparency in governance through e-governance initiatives, zero tolerance for corruption, giving jobs on merit, etc.

BJP is on a front foot and in upbeat mood as its electoral and caste engineering arithmetic has reaped big dividends for the party as the results of 2019 general election indicated. The party won all the 10 Lok Sabha seats in the state, something which was unthinkable not long ago. Despite having little support from the dominant Jat community, BJP galvanized all non-Jat communities like never before and won by a record margin--scoring what is called in gymnastic parlance as a "perfect ten".

Given the strong presence of BJP nationally and its spread at the grassroots level in the state, political experts say that the Jat community had a rethink and a section is in a mood to support the party this time round provided it gets adequate representation in the ticket distribution exercise. "Initially, it was difficult for the Jat community to reconcile with the fact that a non-Jat (Khattar) would be the chief minister. But that was the trump card of BJP. Having the entire non-Jat castes on its side, BJP is inching towards getting the support of the dominant Jat community as well and that does not augur well for the Opposition," said a seasoned Haryana expert.

Though Congress has pulled up its socks after a divided house all these months and years since it lost power in October 2014, it is yet to find a winning formula. After Sonia Gandhi became the Working President of the party, she brought in the duo of Selja as state party chief and Bhupinder Singh Hooda as Leader of the CLP and practically the chief ministerial face of the party. The move has brought in smiles on the faces of old Congress workers as they know that Hooda's networking skills will help rope in sulking workers and groups.

Intense factional rivalry withing the Congress has come to an end for now. Though sacked Haryana Congress chief Ashok Tanwar is sulking, he is not in any position to harm the interests of party. Appointment of Kiran Choudhary as head of election manifesto committee too would help the cause of the Congress as the woman leader from the family of Chaudhary Bansi Lal, is expected to participate whole-heartedly in the campaign now.

Congress chief ministerial aspirant Bhupinder Singh Hooda does not refer to Modi or central government at all in his speeches and supports BJP on Article 370 but also says local issues are extremely important. He keeps on hammering the point that the Khattar government has failed to deliver.

Since the last elections, the biggest shock has been for the main opposition INLD which has suffered a series of setbacks after its split because of a feud in the Chautala family. Most of INLD''s sitting MLAs and prominent leaders have switched over to the BJP and some to the Congress ahead of polls. Party patriarch Om Prakash Chautala is in jail and so is his son Ajay Chautala, triggering a series of allegations and counter allegations within the family.

For BJP keeping all the new comers in good humour and giving them tickets would be a herculean task. There have been so many lateral entries in the BJP that it would find it difficult to accommodate them in its ticket distribution exercise. It is a classic case of problem of plenty and is bound to hurt it if some of them join other parties at the last moment if denied party tickets.

In the 2014 elections, BJP won 47 seats and later won the by-poll of Jind, taking its tally to 48. INLD had won 19 seats though several of them later switched over to BJP. Congress managed to win 17, BSP one, independents five and SAD one in the last assembly. This time, is is "Mission 75+" of BJP versus "tried and tested" formula of Congress.