Haryana | The Spring Is Back in Khattar’s Step

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar would like to attribute BJP nominee Krishan Midha’s victory in the January 31 Jind bypoll to the transparency and corruption-free governance he claims in Haryana since assuming power in October 2014. This is the first time the party has won in Jind. The verdict has also prompted a rethink within the BJP leadership. Hitherto firm that the assembly will complete its term, which ends in October, Khattar said, in the wake of the Jind result, that he was open to the idea of simultaneous elections to the assembly and the Lok Sabha.

In December, even as the BJP suffered losses in the Hindi heartland, the party won all five mayoral seats in Haryana’s civic polls. Winning the Jind bypoll a month later has further boosted the party’s morale. Midha, who joined the BJP following the death of his father, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader and sitting MLA Harichand Midha, polled an impressive 50,566 votes, winning by a margin of 12,935 votes.

In Haryana, both national and regional parties have been battling factions within their respective organisations. While the Congress is reportedly dealing with infighting between the supporters of its national spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala and those of former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the INLD is engaged in a family battle. While Digvijay Chautala of the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP)floated after he and his brother Dushyant Chautala broke away from grandfather Om Prakash Chautala’s INLDpolled 37,631 votes, the INLD polled an ignominious 3,454 votes, which cost its candidate Umed Redhu his security deposit. Jind is perhaps the most worrying for the Congress, which failed despite fielding Surjewala, who polled just over 22,000 votes.

The BJP chose to field Midha, a Punjabi, in a constituency where close to a fourth of the electorate is Jat, but has not elected a Jat MLA since 1972. The division of the Jat vote, between the Jat candidates fielded by the Congress, the JJP and the INLD, apparently worked to the benefit of the BJP. The outcome has its roots in the Jat agitation of 2016. The Jat agitation, in which Pandit, Baniya and Saini-owned businesses were targeted, created deep divisions in the state, pitting the Jats against the rest of the 35 biradaris (castes). If the verdict from Jind is any indication, there will be a broader consolidation against the Jats, which, the BJP believes, will work to its advantage.

Says Capt. Abhimanyu Sindhu, the state finance minister, The Jind result has opened the gateway to new territories for the BJP in Haryana.