With the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections still over a year away in Haryana, it would be premature to predict the poll strategy of various parties but churning has already started in the state’s all major players — Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress, Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD).
Currently, all 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana are held by BJP members. In the 2019 Assembly polls, JJP won 10 seats, while the BJP and Congress got 40 and 31 respectively. Six of the seven Independents are also supporting the BJP-JJP government in the State.
Talking to reporters, senior BJP leader and former Union Minister Birender Singh, who is in favour of the party contesting the 2024 State Assembly and Lok Sabha polls independently, said that BJP has a “very strong” base in the State and does not need anyone’s support. Although it was early to predict, BJP’s fight in the next year’s state Assembly polls should mainly be with the Congress, he added.
Reacting to a question on the future of the alliance between the Bharatiya Janata Party and Jannayak Janata Party, Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala had recently said: “I am not an astrologer. As of today, we have an alliance with the BJP and it is working well. The state has progressed well during the BJP-JJP regime.”
“As far as the next year’s elections are concerned, we are preparing for all the 10 Lok Sabha seats and 70 Assembly seats. Every party aspires to increase its number of seats in the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha, and with that in mind, we are trying to strengthen our base in all the seats,” he had added.
Moreover, keeping in view of upcoming elections, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had also recently launched a ‘Jan Samvad’ programme to listen to public grievances by sitting among them. After Bhiwani, the Chief Minister, on the demand of the people during the Jan Samvad programme in Palwal, had made a slew of announcements and solved problems on the spot while visiting different villages and interacting with rural folks.
Few months ago, around 50 leaders, including three former MLAs had joined the Congress at the Congress Bhavan in Chandigarh, leaving BJP, JJP, INLD and Aam Aadmi Party.
Congress party also has recently started several public meetings under the campaign ‘Hath Se Hath Jodo Abhiyan. To woo the voters, the senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda had also made several promises during the campaign. “Farmers will get MSP, jobs for youth and old pension scheme for employees when the Congress government is formed in Haryana. Congress is constantly engaged in public relations under the 'Haath se Haath Jodo' campaign,” he had said.
Hooda, while addressing the ‘Vipaksh Aapke Samaksh’ and Jai Bharat Satyagraha program in Yamunanagar recently, had said: “About two lakh posts are lying vacant in government departments. The wind blowing in favour of the Congress has now taken the form of a storm, by the time the elections come, it will turn into a typhoon.”
Moreover, fighting for the party’s survival, senior INLD leader Abhay Chautala has now embarked upon a 215-day “padayatra” — flagged off by its supremo Om Prakash Chautala in Nuh’s Shringar village on February 24 — passing through all 90 Assembly constituencies of the State to reconnect with the electorate ahead of the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections next year and reclaim the political ground ceded to its breakaway group.
To brighten its chances, this party has kept its doors open for alliance with any political party, including the Congress, to defeat the “anti-farmer” BJP-JJP alliance in the State. Om Prakash Chautala also made a call for a grand national coalition against the BJP and the birth anniversary celebration of the late Deputy Prime Minister Chaudhary Devi Lal last year provided a platform for Opposition’s unity with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his Deputy Tejashwi Yadav, along with several leaders from the different political parties, sharing the dais.
Abhay Chautala, at a press conference earlier this month, had said that the “padayatra” would culminate at Kurukshetra on September 25 coinciding with the birth anniversary celebration of Chaudhary Devi Lal and the event would be attended by senior Opposition leaders.
“The Bharatiya Janata Party gave a slogan to cross the 75-seat mark in 2019, but the people of Haryana rejected it. However, some selfish people supported the party to form its government. But the coalition government has created problems for the masses, instead of addressing their grievances,” said Ellenabad MLA Abhay Singh Chautala in a veiled attack on the party’s breakaway faction Jannayak Janta Party, the junior partner in the State’s alliance government, at a gathering in Faridabad’s Fathepur village.
