In Haryana, BJP struggling to retain seats as dynasties battle it out in Hisar 

Battleground Haryana prepares for a straight fight between the Congress and BJP as lesser players such as INLD, JJP and AAP lurk on the margins, writes Yoginder Gupta

Haryana is set for a royal ballot battle between the BJP and the Congress when the state goes to polls on May 12. The BJP, which won seven out of the 10 Lok Sabha seats in 2014, is finding it hard to retain its tally.

The most interesting battle is being fought on the Hisar seat where the scions of three political dynasties of Haryana are pitted against each other. So, the legacies of the contestants’ families are also at stake besides the Lok Sabha seat.

Dushyant Chautala, the great grandson of former deputy prime minister Devi Lal, is being challenged by 26-year-old Bhavya Bishnoi, the grandson of former chief minister Bhajan Lal, contesting on a Congress ticket.

The BJP has fielded Brijendra Singh, a former IAS officer and son of Union steel minister Birender Singh. His mother Prem Lata is an MLA from Uchana. Singh is the great-grandson of pre-Independence prominent farmer leader Sir Chhotu Ram.

In the past five years, the political scene of the state has undergone a sea-change. Till 2014, Haryana used to witness virtually direct contests between the Congress and the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD).

Despite the departure of the Chautalas – former chief minister Om Prakash and his elder son Ajay -- from active politics after they were convicted in the JBT teachers recruitment scam, the INLD remained a force to reckon with in Haryana.

The BJP always remained a small player in the state. It had to enter into electoral alliances with the INLD or former chief minister Bansi Lal’s Haryana Vikas Party, to be a junior partner in the ruling alliances.

But in 2014, the BJP established itself as an alternative to the Congress and the INLD as it bagged seven of the 10 Lok Sabha seats. The Congress could win just one seat, Rohtak, from where Deepender Hooda won by a margin of about 1.70 lakh votes, the INLD won the Sirsa and Hisar seats.

In 2019, the INLD has lost its political might, thanks to a vertical split in the Chautala family. The Chautala patriarch, Om Prakash, has thrown his elder son, Ajay, who is also his co-inmate in Tihar Jail, out of the party.

Ajay, his MLA wife Naina and his sons, Dushyant and Digvijay, have floated a new party, Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), which in a short span of time has become more popular than the parent party.

The JJP is contesting the Lok Sabha elections in alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the ratio of 7:3.

The dissipation of the INLD has reduced the contests in most of the 10 Lok Sabha seats of Haryana to a direct fight between the Congress and the BJP.

The JJP is putting up a token fight only in Hisar, from where it has fielded sitting MP Dushyant Chautala. Nobody takes AAP candidates seriously in the three constituencies — Ambala, Karnal and Faridabad —the party is contesting.

The Congress has fielded several heavyweights including former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and his MP son Deepender from the adjoining constituencies of Sonepat and Rohtak respectively.

Bhupinder Singh Hooda is married in Sonepat district and commands a large following in the area. His son Deepender had retained the Rohtak seat in 2014 with a margin of about 1.70 lakh votes.

The sitting MP from Sonepat Ramesh Kaushik is facing huge anti-incumbency. He is seeking votes solely in the name of Prime Minister Modi. On the other hand, supporters of Hooda remind the electorate that the victory of the former Chief Minister from here would decide the outcome of the Assembly elections due in October this year.

Former MP and Union Minister Kumari Selja has come back to make a bid to wrest the Ambala reserved seat from the BJP’s Rattan Lal Kataria. Selja represented the seat in the Lok Sabha in 2004 and 2009. However, she opted for the Rajya Sabha before the 2014 elections. Kataria too is facing a strong anti-incumbency.

Union Minister Rao Inderjit Singh is being challenged by Captain Ajay Singh Yadav from Gurugram. Like Rao Inderjit, Ajay Singh too is a popular Yadav leader in the area. He remained unbeaten as Rewari MLA till 2014 when he lost his first election.

Kuldeep Sharma is challenging Sanjay Bhatia of BJP on behalf of the Congress from Karnal. Sharma’s father, Pandit Chiranji Lal Sharma, was a four-time MP from here. Kuldeep was the Speaker of the Assembly before 2014.

The BJP’s game plan is largely to play up the divide between the Jats and non-Jats apart from creating a jingoist frenzy. A large number of youth from Haryana go to the army and police forces. The saffron party’s war mongering, coupled with a clear communal segregation in the state, could fetch it more votes than the opponents may guess.

The farming community, however, irrespective of their caste, are not happy with the ruling party. They complain that the BJP had gone back on its promise to implement the Swaminathan report.

Political observers feel that the BJP would find it very hard to maintain even half of its 2014 tally in Haryana, which goes to polls on May 12.