The script for the BJP’s stunning Haryana win was penned by none other than PM Modi when he replaced CM Khattar with Nayab Saini, an OBC leader. Saini pacified sarpanches and ensured that public grievances were redressed at special camps held by DCs. A report by Rajesh moudgil
The results of the October 5 Haryana assembly election which came on October 8, could not have been more damaging for Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which prior to the results, claimed they would play the role of king-maker after the results; While both of these parties failed to failed to even open their account, another regional party, Indian National Dal (INLD), which once ruled Haryana, has got just two seats.
What is worse is that the top leaders of the JJP and INLD, Dushyant Chautala and Abhay Chautala, respectively, faced a brutal drubbing in their respective seats; while Dushyant fared poorly in Uchana Kalan seat, Abhay lost his home turf Ellenabad seat. Sushil Gupta, president of AAP, Haryana, who had faced humiliating defeat in his Kurukshetra seat in the recently held Lok Sabha election, did not fight this assembly polls.
The JJP which was a partner in the BJP government till March this year, has had its worst-ever performance with only about 0.9% vote share this election. Its vote share in 2019 was 14.84% when its 10 MLAs had made it to the state assembly. While all its candidates bit the dust this time, it was such an embarrassing defeat for the party that its top leader, Dushyant Chautala, himself was trounced as he finished fifth from Uchana Kalan seat. He mustered just 7,950 votes and finished at a poor fifth position. The BJP candidate won this seat by a margin of just 32 votes defeating Congress’ Brijendra Singh.
The BJP had won 40 seats in the 2019 assembly election and thus failed to secure a majority in the House of 90. The Dushyant Chautala-led JJP – a splinter outfit of INLD – had 10 MLAs and stitched a post-election alliance with BJP. Dushyant was made deputy chief minister in the chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government.
The AAP, which has its government in Delhi and Punjab, failed to open its account in Haryana, which happens to be the home state of Kejriwal. The AAP could get only 1.79% vote while only one out of its total 90 candidates could secure his deposit.
Another opposition party, the INLD, could win just two seats as the party garnered just 4.14% votes; Abhay Chautala’s son, Arjun won from Rania seat and Aditya, also from Chautala clan, won from Dabwali. The vote share of INLD in 2019 was 2.44% when Abhay was the only INLD candidate to win in the state. In 2014 assembly polls, INLD had won 19 seats and 31 in 2009.
Notably, as many as eight members of the Chautala clan contested this election, and six of them were trounced. Ranjit Chautala, Abhay Chautala, Dushyant Chautala, Digvijay Chautala, Naina Chautala and Sunaina Chautala were among the losers.
For the record, the ruling BJP has scripted a history by scoring a hat-trick with its best showing bagging 48 seats in the October 5 state assembly polls, and its main rival, the Congress, finished with 37 seats out of the total 90 seats.
However, while the AAP leaders, who did not want to be named, blamed Congress for the defeat giving example of several seats where Congress candidates lost by a thin margin, and held that BJP could not win the assembly election, had there been an alliance between AAP and Congress – as constituents of INDIA bloc – the INLD leaders held that the Congress had played as a “B’’ team of BJP in this election to make each other’s candidates win.
While the BJP, which had an OBC CM face, had got non-Jat votes, as SC votes which were to go to Congress were also divided among Congress, INLD and JJP, which had alliance with BSP and Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram), respectively, pollsters held.
Meanwhile, all the three independent candidates who had won the Haryana assembly election have extended their support to the ruling BJP. Savitri Jindal, who is country’s richest woman and mother of BJP MP from Kurukshetra Naveen Jindal, who had rebelled against the saffron party after she was denied ticket from Hisar, had fought as an independent and won, has extended her support to the BJP.
The other two independents who have also supported BJP after the election, are Devender Kadiyan and Rajesh Joon. While the former fought from Gannaur seat, Joon had contested the Bahadurgarh seat. They extended their support to the saffron party after meeting senior BJP leaders, state incharge Dharmendra Pradhan and co-incharge Biplab Dev in New Delhi earlier this week.
