In Jat vs Others Battle, North Haryana Set to Take Centre-Stage

New Delhi: With voting on in Haryana, all eyes are on some high-profile seats. Fielded by the Congress, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and the newly-formed Jantantrik Janata Party (JJP), all the candidates in these seats are giving a tough fight to each other.

Some 1,169 candidates are in the fray for the 90 seats in the state, the main contest appears to be between Congress and BJP, which is teeming with confidence with its slogan of “Abki Baar, Sattar Paar (this time, we will cross 70)”. The Chautala clan-led INLD and its offshoot Dushyant Chautala’s JJP are trying to dent he votes of the two national parties.

The saffron party is poised to retain its government in the state by default, as it is faced with a scattered Opposition — Congress, which is divided into factions; a beleaguered INLD, which is battling family feuds and corruption cases; and regional parties floated by various former chief ministers’ descendants.

Caste — as always — is the single biggest factor in 27 Jat-dominated constituencies in North Haryana. The saffron party had fared badly in the 2014 Assembly elections in this region where its leaders had either lost their deposits or did not lead in 16 of the 27 Assembly segments in the 2019 general elections in May despite the saffron party winning all 10 Lok Sabha seats of North Haryana.

Even Congress managed to win only one (Kaithal) of the 27 seats in 2014. Its 37 candidates lost their deposits, with most of them in North Haryana.

Newsclick takes a look at social combination swinging the elections and high-profile seats in North and South Haryana.

Learning from past performance, when BJP had secured only Panipat, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Yamunanagar, Ambala, Panchkula and Chandigarh seats, it — in addition to depending on Narendra Modi’s people’s connect — has also focussed on social engineering to counter the dominance of Jat votes in the region. It has left no stone unturned to woo non-Jat Punjabi-speaking baniya community (also called Punjabi), which had long been politically insignificant.

It is banking on upper caste and baniya-khatri votes. And, therefore, the party has once again projected Manohar Lal Khattar as the leader in the state despite huge anti-incumbency against the BJP government. The 65-year-old leader, who was earlier a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh pracharak (propagandist)— is being praised by a section of the upper caste community for his governance and clean image.

While Jats don’t like him because of the way he handled their agitation for quota, he has managed to make a mark among non-Jat voters. The divide between Jat and non-Jat communities became more evident since the Jat reservation stir in February 2016.

The BJP has very carefully played the nationalism and development card in the region instead of talking about farmers’ distress and unemployment. It has tried to play the nationalism card as 10.6% of defence forces are constituted by people from the state.

In the 2014 Assembly polls in the state, the BJP had won 47, the INLD 19, the Congress 15, the Haryana Janhit Congress 2, the Bahujan Samaj Party one, the Shiromani Akali Dal one and five independents with a vote share of 33.2%, 24.1%, 20.6%, 3.6%, 4.4% and 0.6%, respectively.

About 30% dalits in the state still pose a challenge for BJP. Haryana has 14 reserved seats, of which BJP won nine, its ally SAD got one, while the Congress bagged four.

Khattar government’s action against self-styled godman Ram Rahim Singh and other dera (sect) heads may cost the saffron party some dalit votes, which have always been divided between Congress and BSP.

JAT LAND

The community claims that its ‘chhattis biradri’ (36 communities) co-exist in Haryana and will teach BJP a lesson in this election. The jats, who constitute over 25% of the total population, have dominated the politics of the state. Hisar, Bhiwani, Mahendragarh, Rohtak, Jhajjar, Sonipat, Jind and Kaithal form the heart of Haryana’s jat belt.

The families of former chief ministers Bansi Lal, Bhajan Lal, Om Prakash Chautala and Bhupinder Hooda have controlled the politics of Haryana by winning seats spread across these districts.

In the 2014 Assembly polls, the Congress could secure only its family bastions of Jhajjar, Sonepat and Rohtak with 15 seats. Chautala’s INLD had performed better by winning in pockets of Sirsa, Bhiwani, Fatehabad and Mewat belt.

However, all these political parties have of late appear to have realised that they would need to step out of their bastions in the jat belt and also woo non-jat voters. For Hoodas and other political jat families, it is a do or die battle for retaining political relevance given the rout in the recent Lok Sabha elections in the state.

While the Congress and INLD tried to focus on local governance issues, 

BJP is banking on Khattar’s governance and the PM Modi’s “charisma”. Employment is one of the major issues. BJP claims that family bastions of the Hoodas — Rohtak and Sonepat — had dominance over government jobs, but all districts were given their due share in the Khattar government. This has further polarised jats and non-jats.

The BJP has fielded 20 candidates from the community, the JJP 33 and the Congress 26.

Against a series of rallies of BJP leaders, including Modi, in the jat belt, the Congress national leadership shunned campaigning in North Haryana. Rahul Gandhi addressed a public gathering in Nuh, Sonia Gandhi’s sole rally in Mahendragarh was cancelled. Priyanka Gandhi too did not pay a visit to the state.       

Bordering Delhi on one side and Mewat on the other, South Haryana has urban districts such as Gurguram and Faridabad. BJP has been weak in these regions since 2014. Even when the party rode to power in the state, it was South Haryana where it could only win the Sohna seat.

However, the party has left no stone unturned to woo the Meo Muslim community in the Mewat region. Apart from encashing its triple talaq decision, the party has taken Muslim MLAs and independents in its fold. Zakir Hussain and Naseem Ahmed — sitting MLAs of the INLD from Nuh and Firozpur Jhirka, respectively  — are contesting on BJP tickets.

HIGH-STAKE SEATS

BJP has fielded Tik Tok star Sonali Phogat against three-time Congress MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi, younger son of late Bhajan Lal, from the Adampur Assembly constituency in Hisar district. Former CM Bhajan Lal had represented the seat eight times in the Assembly.

While 15 candidates are contesting from this jat-dominated constituency, which has a voters’ population of over 1.60 lakh, the main contest is seen between Bishnoi and Phogat.

“I don’t have any challenge, I am set to win the election,” a confident Phogat told Newsclick.

An actor for the past 20 years, Phogat, who was BJP’s Mahila Morcha state vice-president, said her party was a “ray of hope” for women aspiring to join politics. She listed names, such as Smriti Irani, Nirmala Sitharaman, late Sushma Swaraj and Sumitra Mahajan with an aim to strengthen her claim.

Hansi MLA Renuka Bishnoi, who was campaigning for her husband — Kuldeep Bishnoi, said that people of Adampur know who stood solidly behind them all these years.

“This is Adampur where people fight elections, not their leaders. Adampur constituency is like a family to us and we have nurtured it over the years. Phogat is trying her luck, but we don’t consider her as an opponent,” she said.

Attacking the BJP government, she said, “Haryana has seen a discrimination and bias in development works in the past five years. No new school or college was set up here. The long-standing issue of water was not addressed.”

She exuded confidence that voters will choose the Congress this time. “The Congress will form the next government, you will see,” she said.

Even voters in the region showed confidence in Bishnoi. They said he belonged to the constituency and was accessible to everyone. “Phogat is an outsider, how can we trust her. Though Bishnoi hasn’t done anything significant, yet we will go for him as his party was not in power,” they said.  

Congress’ spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala is taking on BJP’s Lila Ram Gujjar, who parted ways from INLD to join the saffron party from Kaithal Assembly segment.

Surjewala said has appealed the voters for their support against BJP’s “arrogance”, “bandi and talabandi” that — according to him — prevails in all sectors of the state. 

“Haryana has rampant unemployment — which is at 29% — with 15,000 candidates applying for merely 4,000 posts of clerks. There is an extreme rural distress. Farmers are being denied MSP (minimum support price). For example, while MSP of PR variety of paddy is Rs 1,835 per quintal, the farmers are getting Rs 1,600 per quintal. But the J Forms claim Rs 1,835 per quintal. The BJP is pocketing the remaining Rs 235 per quintal is a scam. There is absolute corruption and maladministration in the state, but no whisper of governance exists. These factors are going to ensure that the BJP is decimated in this election,” he said.

With regard to the BJP raising the issues of abrogation of Article 370, he said the saffron party naturally has to fight the election on irrelevant issues because it has done nothing in the past five years. “Tell us how does NRC, triple talaq or Kashmir affect Haryana? The truth is the Khattar government has delivered zilch. The state is in a debt trap of Rs 1.10 lakh thousand crore, which has heaped in the past five years. The Khattar government has the audacity to buy Bhagwat Gita copy for Rs 32,000 which is available in Rs 100 in the Gita Jayanti Mahotsav. They paid Rs 30 lakh to Hema Malini for a 15-minute dance. They bought a cup of tea for Rs 407 and a ‘thali’ (food plate) for Rs 32,800. It was revealed in response to an RTI filed, seeking the expenditure on the event organised in Gurgaon. That’s the kind of rampant corruption and misuse of money of public money. Since they have nothing to say, they are fighting election in Afghanistan, London, Assam, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir, but not in Haryana,” he said.

Continuing his attack on BJP, he said, “There is transparent corruption in the Khattar government. And I am not saying so. They have sold the entire Aravali all across NCR. Finally, the Supreme Court had to intervene. That itself is Rs 2,000 crore scam. It is being reported everyday that how BJP leaders are involved in illegal mining in Yamuna in Haryana. We have also seen Rs 5,000 crore overloading racket in Bhiwani where recorded conversation of bureaucrat receiving money and transferring it to upstairs is available. But no action taken. Rs 150 crore meant for scholarship of the scheduled caste students has been eaten. No action taken. SSC papers were sold openly. An FIR was filed against the chairman and members of the commission two-and-a-half-year ago but no action taken.”

The Congress, JJP, INLD, AAP, BSP and other opponents targeted the Khattar government over unemployment, economy, farmers distress and alleged scams including mining and cash-for-jobs scam and "deteriorating" law and order situation in the state.

Prominent amongst those in the contest are Chief Minister Khattar (Karnal), former chief minister and Congress Legislative Party leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda (Garhi Sampla-Kiloi), Randeep Singh Surjewala (Kaithal), Kiran Choudhary (Tosham) and Kuldeep Bishnoi (Adampur), Haryana Assembly Speaker Kanwar Pal Gurjar (Jagadhri).

Besides, JJP's Dushyant Chautala (Uchana Kalan), INLD's Abhay Singh Chautala (Ellenabad), state BJP chief Subhash Barala (Tohana), lone woman minister Kavita Jain (Sonipat), ministers Ram Bilas Sharma (Mahendergarh), Anil Vij (Ambala Cantt), O P Dhankar (Badli) and Capt Abhimanyu (Narnaund) are also in the fray.

The BJP has fielded three sportspersons -- Babita Phogat (Dadri), Yogeshwar Dutt (Baroda in Sonipat) and Sandeep Singh (Pehowa). In the polls, the prestige of families of Haryana's famous ‘Lals’ - Devi Lal, Bansi Lal and Bhajan Lal, who were former chief ministers - will be at stake.

Late Bansi Lal’s daughter-in-law Kiran Choudhary (Tosham) and son Ranbir Mahendra (Badhra) are contesting as Congress candidates. Devi Lal's great-grandson and JJP leader Dushyant Chautala and granddaughter-in-law Naina Chautala (Badhra) are fighting as JJP candidates.

Devi Lal's grandson and former chief minister O P Chautala's son Abhay Singh Chautala is fighting as INLD candidate (from Ellenabad).