As the campaign for the Lok Sabha elections picks up, it seems the regional parties Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) in Haryana, are fighting a battle for political survival. 

The INLD, became a regional force and secured between 15 to 28 per cent vote share on different occasions before sliding to 1.9 per cent  in 2019 after division. It seems to be struggling in the Lok Sabha Poll 2024 to find candidates from their respective cadres to take the field. Additionally, INLD has been out of power for two decades in the State and also witnessed a bitter split in the form of JJP in 2018.  

INLD had won only one seat in the 2019 Assembly election. On the other hand, JJP, which had won 10 seats in the 2019 Assembly election, formed a post-poll alliance with the BJP after the State Assembly polls threw up a fractured mandate. Four-and-a-half years later, JJP was ditched by its ally BJP and also facing rebellion from its own ranks. Five MLAs Jogi Ram Sihag, Ram Kumar Gautam, Ishwar Singh, Ramniwas and Devinder Babli, who reportedly formed a group and are in touch with the BJP. Moreover, JJP State President Nishan Singh has quit the party and likely to join the Congress. After the formation of the JJP in 2018, Nishan Singh was given the responsibility of the state president.

Both INLD and JJP have announced to field candidates on all the 10 Lok Sabha seats of the State. So far, the JJP has announced Rao Bahadur Singh from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh, who joined the party weeks ago. INLD has fielded its senior leader Abhay Chautala from Kurukshetra Lok Sabha constituency.   The Lok Sabha polls for all 10 seats in Haryana will be held in the sixth of the seven-phase general election on May 25.

It seems this time round, the regional parties, which have been wielding significant influence in Haryana politics from 1967 onwards, are struggling to find suitable candidates in this parliamentary election.  The 2019 Parliamentary Election turned out to be the worst for regional parties since 1977. INLD and the JJP had secured just 1.9 per cent and 4.9 per cent vote share in the Lok Sabha 2019 election.

The political history of State based regional political parties revealed that Haryana Vikas Party (HVP), which was formed in 1991 by former CM Bansi Lal, merged with Congress in 2004. Since 1991, HVP has won five seats in the Lok Sabha poll. Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC), which was formed by Bhajan Lal in 2007, had merged with Congress party in 2016. Bhajan Lal had won LS Poll twice from Hisar. The Vishal Haryana Party (VHP), led by Rao Birender Singh, could win just one seat in 1971.

The INLD, earlier Lok Dal, had carved a niche in Haryana politics since the late 1970s, led by Devi Lal, who emerged as a main challenger to the Congress. Apart from 1977, when the Janata Party won all 10 seats, the Lok Dal had sent 21 MPs to the Lok Sabha from Haryana since 1980. Devi Lal merged the Lok Dal with the Janata Dal in 1988, after which it won six seats in 1989. Later, the INLD retained the mantle of regional force and secured between 15 to 28 per cent vote share on different occasions. However,  INLD has been out of power for two decades and also witnessed a bitter split. Few months ahead of Parliamentary election 2019, the INLD, which had two MPs in 2014, could not control factionalism in the Chautala clan that led to the formation of the JJP in December 2018. 

As Dushyant Chautala represented Hisar in the Lok Sabha from 2014 to 2019, his father Ajay Singh Chautala was the MP from Bhiwani (the name was changed to Bhiwani-Mahindragarh after delimitation in 2008) from 1999 to 2004, JJP wanted to contest Lok Sabha elections on these two seats but the BJP, which had won all 10 seats in 2019 polls, was willing to sacrifice just one, triggering clash between the two, leading to a break-up of the alliance.

Political analysts feel that JJP and INLD have good presence in some segments and have the potential to influence the outcome of the election. But like it was in 2019, the Lok Sabha election in Haryana is going to be a bipolar affair. The JJP has lost its support among voters in the State and would only end up causing slight damage to the Opposition by splitting anti-incumbency votes. Whatever votes JJP candidates get, will only be at the expense of the INDIA (Congress-AAP, in the case of Haryana). In the 2019 Lok Sabha Election, Congress lost the Rohtak seat on account of the JP candidate Pradeep Kumar Deswal who got 21,211 votes and remained at fourth position after the BJP, the Congress and BSP candidates. Congress’s Deepender Hooda polled 5,66,342 votes and lost to Arvind Sharma (who polled 5,73,845 votes) of the BJP by a margin of 7,503 votes. A large majority of Deswal’s 21,211 voters were Jats who could have voted for Hooda.

Analysts said that a rejuvenated cadre was very important for the survival of the outfit. The cadre of both these parties is highly dejected. Additionally, there is “huge resentment” against the JJP among its voters, particularly farmers, because of the support it extended to “anti-farmer and anti-sportsperson actions of the BJP government. The INLD and the JJP were also having difficulty in selecting candidates. The leaders of these political parties need to put up an impressive performance in the polls, or else they risk political extinction, they added.