Prime Minister Narendra Modi is spearheading the BJP’s political battle to blunt anti-incumbency against the Saini regime in Haryana, as he has decided to address three rallies in Sonipath, Palwal and Hisar.
PM, who had addressed a rally in Kurukshetra on September 14, will reach out to people in Sonipat on September 26, in Palwal on October 2 and another in Hisar for which the date has not been fixed, State BJP president Mohan Lal Badoli said in Chandigarh.
The party has deputed Badoli for Modi’s Sonipath rally, while Kuldeep Bisnoi has been made in-charge of Hisar rally and Union Minister Krishnapal Gurjar for Palwal rally to ensure good crowd turnout.
Party sources said that people’s strength at Kurukshetra rally of PM was not very encouraging.
On Wednesday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah will release BJP manifesto ahead of October 5 polls for 90-member assembly constituency.
Going Solo
The BJP is going solo in this assembly polls, as it’s post 2019 poll alliance with regional Jat-dominated Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) fell apart in March this year, which was close to the Lok Sabha elections where the right wing party’s performance slipped, bagging just five of total ten seats.
The BJP had won ten out ten seats in 2019 general elections, while it had managed seven in 2014.
The NDA alliance break lead to resignation of former Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar along with Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala and other cabinet ministers.
Though BJP made Nayab Singh Saini the Chief Minister to contain the anti-incumbency against Khattar regime, but the move was too late to address disenchantment among the OBCs and Dalits.
It added to the BJP’s burden of Jat consolidation towards Congress which improved its showing at the husting in 2024 Lok Sabha elections by wining five seats, far better than drawing blank in 2019 polls.
With little time gap between the Lok Sabha and assembly polls, the BJP is gearing for a tough battle despite the party is hopping that a multi-cornered contest might come as some sort of breather to them, especially to split Jat and Dalit votes.
Apart from Congress, BJP and AAP which are contesting on their own, JJP has tied up with Azad Samaj Party of Chandrashekhar Azad, a dalit MP from Uttar Pradesh.
Similarly, former UP CM Mayawati’ BSP has formed an alliance with Indian National Lok Dal, a splinter group from the original INLD formed by Jat heavy weight leader and former CM Om Prakash Chautala. The other is JJP.
The regional Jat parties have formed alliance with Dalit parties to seek consolidation of the OBC-SC vote bank as their future is also at stake in this assembly polls.
But, the trend in the Lok Sabha showed that Jats rallied behind Congress as they seek to regain power back in Haryana which they lost since Modi did social engineering by bringing together non-Jat OBC and SCs.
Candidates in fray
Prominent names in the fray for October 5 polls are; Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini from Kurukshetra’s Ladwa and Anil Vij from Ambala Cantt -- both from the BJP. Like wise, Congress’ Bhupinder Singh Hooda from Rohtak’s Garhi Sampla-Kiloi and wrestler Vinesh Phogat from Julana.
JJP’s Dushyant Chautala from Uchana Kalan, INLD’s Abhay Singh Chautala from Ellenabad and AAP’s Anurag Dhanda from Kalayat.
Several kin of Haryana’s three famous ‘Lals’ -- former chief ministers Bansi Lal, Devi Lal and Bhajan Lal -- are also contesting, with some even taking on each other.
Among the kin of the three ‘Lals’, Congress candidate Anirudh Chaudhry, Bansi Lal’s grandson and former treasurer of the BCCI, is contesting from Bhiwani’s Tosham seat against his cousin and ex-MP Shruti Choudhry, fielded by the BJP.
From the Dabwali seat, Devi Lal’s grandson Aditya Devi Lal, an INLD candidate, will take on the JJP’s Digvijay Singh Chautala, the great-grandson of the former deputy prime minister.
In Hisar’s Adampur constituency, Bhajan Lal’s grandson Bhavya Bishnoi of the BJP is seeking re-election.