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The campaign for the Haryana Assembly polls is at its peak. There are certain visible indicators that stem from the local polity. These have a potential to have an impact on the Assembly polls that will follow in the next few months including those in Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Delhi.
In Haryana, the public is vocal about its disenchantment with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). This has given a clear edge to the opposition Congress that has been out of power in the last decade.
But as they say there are many slips between the cup and the lip. The grand old party continues to battle factionalism mainly between the camps led by former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, and present Sirsa Lok Sabha member Kumari Selja.
The latter has returned to campaigning after a brief withdrawal. She has been repeating that the CM will be decided by the party high command when the party gets the required number of seats.
The same is also true for the BJP, where multiple claimants have expressed their aspirations for the top post should the party manage to score a hat trick win. However, that looks like a daunting task.
Although the polls are multi-cornered, with players like Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) also in the fray, the main contest is between the Congress and the BJP. The CP-M is also in the fray on Bhiwani seat in arrangement with the Congress.
What makes these elections interesting is the larger impact they will have. In case of the Congress a victory will be a major morale booster after a good performance in the recent Lok Sabha polls. Haryana can be the first step towards its revival in the Hindi heartland in North India, since the party is out of power in Hindi speaking states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
For the BJP these elections are sure to have an impact on the sliding popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his man Friday Amit Shah. A loss here will be a dampener, coming immediately after the disappointment of the Lok Sabha polls.
The outcome will also be a pointer at the strategy adopted by the BJP of changing chief ministers just before the assembly elections to beat anti incumbency. The party was successful when it did the same in Gujarat and Uttarakhand while bringing in new faces in states like Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan just before Lok Sabha polls delivered a mixed bag.
One also has to factor the growing communal polarisation in different states including the neighbouring ones of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Sources on the ground reveal that while the BJP with its organisational advantage has resorted to micro management as the last ditch effort.
The party’s prospects have been hit by events like Lok Sabha member Kangana Ranout shooting her mouth off on the emotive issue of controversial farm laws that the Modi government was compelled to withdraw following an unprecedented agitation. The party had to wash its hands off her comments and she had to take her words back. But the damage was done.
The BJP is on the back foot on issues like unemployment, the anger against the Agniveer scheme and the treatment meted out to women wrestlers from the state that had protested against alleged sexual harassment by former MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. The right wing trolling of Vinesh Phogat when she was disqualified in the finals of the Paris Olympics added insult to injury.
Phogat joining the Congress along with fellow wrestler Bajranj Punia has been a big disadvantage to the BJP.
The BJP leaders in their distinct style of aggressive politics are trying to catch the public imagination. Union home minister Amit Shah during his rallies in Rewari, Ambala and Kurukshetra claimed that the Nayab Singh Saini led BJP government had initiated the process for recruitment of 50,000 posts without ‘parchi and kharchi’ (corrupt means attributed to the Congress.
The party has been harping on the advantages of a double engine government.
Shah also claimed that the BJP has delivered on its promise of ‘one rank, one pension’ for the retired defence personnel.
He further said that the Congress never honoured the military and kept spreading falsehoods, including the recent claim that Agniveers will be left without employment after their service. He assured that every Agniveer will be provided a secure, pensioned government job, as per the decision of Prime Minister Modi.
He attacked the Congress party for promoting corruption during its tenure in the state. Shah also raked up the issue of construction of Ram Mandir during his rallies. He even accused the Congress of obstructed access to job reservations, frequently citing reasons such as ‘not found suitable’.
In his speeches Shah promised launching of a Mahila Chaupal in every village and creation of Akhadas for Dangals besides developing an Olympics nursery.
He also claimed that over the past decade, Haryana's industrial growth has surged, making it the leading state in per capita goods and services tax (GST) collection. He claimed that Haryana contributes the most per capita to the national economy, ranks second in grain storage, third in milk production and hosts 400 Fortune companies in Gurugram. Tourism is also thriving, positioning Haryana as a leading state in this sector.
The BJP is promising free dialysis in all hospitals and gas cylinders to all women at Rs 500. It is also promising establishment of separate welfare boards for the development of all the 36 communities in the state.
Meanwhile, terming the BJP promises as ‘Jumla Patra’, the Congress came out with its manifesto on Saturday. The party has been raking up the prevalent unemployment in a big way. Senior leader Rahul Gandhi had also played it up in his rallies.
In its manifesto the party has promised jobs to retired Agniveers while also restoring the sports quota. The party has stated that employees recruited through the Kaushal Nigam will no longer be temporary. The party has promised permanent employment to sanitary workers besides giving them an insurance cover of Rs 30 lakh.
Another promise pertains to bringing a Recruitment Bill of two lakh permanent recruitments. The party has stated that the cases pertaining to irregularities in recruitments will be taken up in fast track courts.
It has also promised a drug de-addiction commission alongside a special task force to make Haryana drug free. The other major promises include formation of 21 welfare boards for various sections including Brahmin, Punjabi, goldsmiths etc besides a trade and industry commission.
