CHANDIGARH: With the BJP going it alone in Haryana Assembly polls, preference to Jats in ticket distribution was only a given. In an attempt to find a winning formula, the saffron party has nominated as many as 15 Jat candidates in its first list of 43 contestants.
As Jats constitute 25 per cent of the 1.62 crore voters in Haryana, no political party can afford to annoy them and, it seems, the BJP has learned it well. In a bid to shed its anti-Jat image, the party has even tried to break into the Jat vote bank of the Congress and the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) by accommodating turncoats from both these parties which has, of course, not gone down well with many party loyalists.
Of the nine Congress turncoats fielded by the BJP, seven are Jat leaders who include Prem Lata, wife of former Congress Rajya Sabha MP Birender Singh, from Uchana Kalan. At the same time, the party has nominated 26 candidates from its committed cadre. BJP leaders contended that in the earlier elections, the party allied with a regional party which led it to get non-Jat urban seats while Jat seats went to the other partner. But as it is going alone this time, the party has to take care of all aspects, they added.
However, this move has led to resentment among the loyal party workers who have been ‘ignored’. They are protesting in eight assembly constituencies—Hisar, Karnal, Kaithal, Gurgaon, Rohtak-Narnaund, Mahendragarh, Faridabad and Kurukshetra.
Karnal unit of the party has even written to party president Amit Shah requesting him to intervene. In Karnal, ticket has been allotted to Manohar Lal Khattar. Former MLA Chander Bhatia has threatened to quit the party. Moreover, senior BJP leader Kailash Chand from Narnaund constituency who has been denied ticket is not “happy”.
In another development that has far-reaching political implications in Punjab for the BJP-Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) alliance, the BJP does not want the state’s Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to campaign for INLD in Haryana. INLD has, however, appointed Badal as its star campaigner, and he and SAD are adamant to campaign for the INLD citing ‘family ties’. “I will be campaigning for the INLD in Haryana Assembly elections,” Badal said, putting an end to speculations that he might relent.
BJP legislature party leader Anil Vij has taken strong exception to Badal’s proposed campaign for INLD in the state. “We have told the party high command that Badal should not campaign for INLD as SAD is a part of the National Democratic Alliance,” he said. But the party’s Kisan Morcha president Om Prakash Dhankar felt otherwise. He said, “We have an alliance with the SAD in Punjab and not in Haryana. There is nothing wrong in Badal’s campaigning in the state as the families of Badal and Devi Lal shared close ties.”
Punjab Deputy Chief Minister and SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal said, “The SAD’s ties with the BJP in Punjab are permanent and not open to any speculation or conjecture. But in Haryana, SAD is in alliance with INLD. The alliance would fight the forthcoming civic polls together as per its traditional seat-sharing formula.”