Khattar 2.0: A victory that isn’t

CM Manohar Lal Khattar with Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala and Governor Satyadev Narayan Arya after the swearing-in ceremony. (Image: Twitter)

After hours of speculations and political tussle, ruling BJP (with 40 seats) switched an alliance with ten-month-old Jannayak Janata Party (with 10 seats) and seven independents, taking the tally to 57, much beyond the half-way majority mark of 46 in the assembly.

On Sunday, BJP’s Manohar Lal Khattar and JJP’s Dushyant Chautala took oath as Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister respectively at the Haryana Raj Bhawan.

 

Winning three consecutive elections after assuming power in the state in 2014 and an improved vote-share, the question remains. Is this the victory, BJP was aiming for? Here, I explored few prominent reasons for “a victory that isn’t”  

Former Ministers Ram Bilas Sharma, Captain Abhimanyu, and O.P. Dhankar (L to R) at the swearing-in ceremony. Eight out of ten ministers lost their seats in the elections. (Image: Twitter)

Altered caste equations

Congress swept away all the Jat dominated nine seats of the central Haryana in Rohtak, Jhajjar and Sonipat districts. On these seats, three ministers of the Khattar government including OP Dhankar, Kavita Jain and Manish Grover lost their seats from Badli, Sonipat, and Rohtak respectively. From Rohtak’s Garhi Sampla-Kiloi former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda won with the highest victory margin in the state.

The GT Road belt, mostly controlled by the Punjabi community also saw a reverse trend. In 27 seats on the belt in districts of Panchkula, Ambala, Kurukshetra, Karnal, Kaithal, Yamunanagar, Panipat and Sonepat, BJP is down to 14 from 22 in 2014. However, Congress increased its tally from 1 to 9.  

  

“In the last elections, most voted on party lines but this time people will definitely vote on caste lines. The Punjabi-Jat divide is visible in the society and so in the elections,” a resident of Jhajjar had said.

   

As per Lokniti-CSDS, the BJP had secured around 70 percent votes of non-Jats votes and 50 percent of Jat votes in the Lok Sabha elections. While, this time BJP failed to consolidate the non-Jat, urban votes. These communities including Dalits primarily voted for the Congress or JJP.

PM Modi addressed seven rallies in the state. (Image: Twitter)

Failed 370 wave

The assembly elections in Haryana and Maharashtra were seen as a referendum on the abrogation of article 370. One of the highest contributing states in the Armed forces, it’s easy to instill army valor among the population.

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing seven rallies in the state, he took article 370 to the center-stage. He along with Home Minister Amit Shah and Defense Minister Rajnath Singh aimed to highlight national issues and ignored the local issues. Amit Shah talked about NRC and illegal immigrants, Rajnath wowed the crowd by mooting Pakistan and its occupied Kashmir territory in his speeches.

“The seats won by the BJP are because of Modi and Nationalism issues like Article 370,” said a senior RSS functionary from Karnal. “This is surely a reply to CM’s arrogance that he ignored workers like us for five years.”

However, a report by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy for May-August, the unemployment rate is highest in the country, 28.7%. While the ruling dispensation drummed transparent recruitment in various groups, the opposition pegged on joblessness.

CM covered all 90 assembly seats and addressed 1200 programs during his Jan Aashirwaad Yatra. (Image: Karnal Breaking News)

Over-confidence

 “The footage of CM Khattar was aired on various TV channels where he threatened to behead an elderly who crowned him, dented his soft image,” said Dr. Kushal Pal, a political analyst.  

Further, since the BJP gave the infamous slogan of “75+”, many in the party and sangh itself doubted on the number. Many believe that it was just to create a perception in the mind of voters.

Senior Journalist Kamal Midha is of the opinion that the seeds of decadence were sown during the Jan Aashirwaad Yatra where CM believed it will strengthen the organization rather it weakened the unity.

“Five to six leaders from the same assembly segment organized separate events to welcome Khattar, showing their strength. I can say that the Yatra proved out to be suicidal for the party,” he added.