Prime Minister Narendra Modi raked up infighting among Congress senior leaders Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Kumari Selja at a Haryana election rally in Sonipat on Wednesday. Cautioning voters against bringing the leading opposition party to power, he said it will bring instability and stall development in the State.
Reaching out to people in the Jat land -- a community which has been unhappy with the BJP since police action against them during the reservation agitation in 2016 and subsequently over farm laws -- of the State, Modi again charged the Congress of opposing reservation harbouring hatred towards underprivileged and the deprived community.
The PM’s attack was to neutralise Congress’ campaign strategy during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, when the latter had alleged that Modi’s win for the third consecutive time will also end reservation.
Hooda vs Selja
Modi’s oblique attack on the rivalry between Hooda and Selja is part of BJP’s larger political strategy to create a perception of Jat over dominance if the Congress returns to power in Haryana.
If that happens, believe BJP leaders, this would lead to counter-polarisation of the OBCs and Dalits, hurting the opposition party’s prospects.
While former Haryana CM Hooda is the tallest Jat leader of the Congress, Selja, MP from Sirsa reserved seat, is party’s most credible face of Dalits and a former Union Minister.
Earlier, former CM and now Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had also offered Selja to join the BJP, as she is sulking over being denied an opportunity to contest the Assembly polls and her loyalists not getting tickets to contest polls.
Selja, however, denied any plans to exit Congress and is expected to address the first rally on Thursday, following Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s intervention. There are 17 reserved assembly constituencies in the State, where Dalit votes are decisive.
Discord within Congress
It remains to be seen if Modi’s attempt to exploit the divide within the Congress leadership will check OBCs and Dalits drifting away from the party, to some extent. This had happened to the BJP in the recently held Lok Sabha polls due to the anti-incumbency against the ruling party’s Khattar government and the reservation issue.
Taking on the main opposition party, the PM said Congress governments have a history of bringing “instability” in the States that they have ruled.
“In the past few years, wherever it has formed governments, chief ministers and ministers have been involved in infighting. They have nothing to do with the pain and problems of the people,” Modi said in his second rally. His first rally was in Kurukshetra.
“In Karnataka, the chief minister and deputy chief minister are busy fighting among themselves. In Telangana and Himachal Pradesh, it is the same story,” he said.
The PM referred to infighting in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh too, both of which the Congress lost to the BJP in the 2023 Assembly elections.
“Therefore, Haryana has to be cautious. Haryana has right over me. Remember, if Congress comes to power even by mistake, it will ruin Haryana due to its infighting,” he told electors.
Reservation
Doubling down on the reservation issue, which Modi had also raised in Kurukshetra, he said that the poor, Schedule Castes, Schedule Tribes, and Other Backward Castes have got their due rights when Congress has been out of power.
Whoever has become PM from Congress’ ‘royal family’, they have always opposed reservation, he said.
“Opposition to and hatred towards reservation is in the Congress party’s DNA. That is why, today, we are seeing that the fourth generation of the royal family of the Congress wants to remove reservation. You have to be cautious of Congress party’s anti-reservation tactics,” he said.
On the contrary, he stated that “in Haryana, you see that BJP made Nayab Saini (who comes from OBC community) the Chief Minister. In a short span, Saini has created a place in hearts of people of Haryana.”