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Two States, One Divide | Punjab & Haryana

While Punjab went against the saffron wave and voted Congress into power in the state, Haryana was swept by the 'Modi Magic' again

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Two States, One Divide | Punjab & Haryana
Riding The Tsunamo: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar (Left), In High Command: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh (Right) | Photo: ANI

Firmly living up to their reputation of bucking the national (or in this instance, the north Indian) trend, Punjabis have once again voted for the Congress, while most of India overwhelmingly voted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA back to a second consecutive term in office.

The Punjab Congress, headed by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh was helped by two factors: Firstly, both, the opposition Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) were afflicted with factionalism. Where several veterans quit SAD to float a splinter faction, AAP too was reduced to a shadow of its former self with incumbent legislator Sukhpal Singh Khaira and the party's Patiala MP Dharamvira Gandhi launching separate outfits. The consequent split in both put several Congress nominees, including Preneet Kaur in Patiala, in the lead.

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The other big factor that helped the Congress in Punjab is the public resentment against the decade of SAD-BJP rule (2007-2017). The inquiry commission constituted by the Amarinder government to probe instances of sacrilege against the Guru Granth Sahib and two incidents of police firing on Sikh protesters in 2015 may have contributed to keeping the anger alive. Plus, the fact that the "Modi Wave" never took root in Punjab (in 2014 or now), also worked in the Congress's favour.

Winning Punjab, while his party didn't fare well in the rest of the country, will put the CM in a commanding position, at least vis- -vis his own government. It will help him rein in the former cricketer and Punjab cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, who has charted a contrary course right from the moment he was sworn in, in March 2017.

The recent Lok Sabha polls also saw Sidhu rake up multiple controversies including indirectly accusing the CM of blocking his wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu's nomination as the Congress candidate from Chandigarh. The overall verdict from these elections could, meanwhile, pose a continuing challenge for the Congress state government.

In Haryana, however, the blistering success of the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP only marks the beginning of another long-haul political battle. State assembly elections are due just five short months from now, and the CM and his team will have to scramble to complete pending promises. The 'Modi Magic' that swept Haryana in May 2014 and repeated itself in the assembly poll, giving the BJP its first-ever independent government in the Jat-dominated state, clearly survives across Haryana. The fact that the state shares a border with the national capital and is within shouting distance of the PMO, also helped.

Chief Minister Khattar likes to believe that the mandate also reflects "pro-incumbency" and popular approval of the "transparency" brought in by his government. He hopes this will help maintain the momentum till the assembly poll, possibly this October. The BJP's state unit chief, Subhash Barala, is already commencing preparations for the state election.

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But Khattar and the BJP rank and file in Haryana know that they owe their electoral successes to the deep caste divide that pitches the once politically dominant Jat community (22 per cent) against the remaining 35 castes. Under Khattar, the BJP managed to woo the non-Jats, while drawing a measure of Jat supporters with the 10 per cent reservation for economically weaker sections announced by the PM.

That the state Congress continued to be faction-ridden between former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, state president Ashok Tanwar and national spokesperson Randip Surjewala also helped the BJP. As did the fact that the Jat-centric Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) split following a feud within the Chautala clan.

The chief minister and his colleagues are banking on the fact that the situation vis- -vis the Congress, INLD and the newly-formed Jannayak Janata Party, will not be any different by the time of the state assembly election.