Despite the BJP seemingly doing well all over the state, Narnaund seems to be a slightly difficult proposition for the party candidate and Haryana Finance Minister Capt Abhimanyu.
In this Assembly election 2019, it is BJP versus JJP in the primarily rural Jat-dominated Assembly segment in Hisar district with state’s Finance Minister Capt Abhimanyu making a spirited effort to retain the seat on development plank. JJP has named Ram Kumar Gautam, former BJP leader who was an MLA in 2005 from this seat.
“People have made up their mind to give another term to the Chief Minister as the State is achieving new heights. The opposition parties including the Congress, INLD and the newly floated JJP are in a disarray and unable to give a fight to the BJP,” Abhimanyu claimed.
The caste arithmetic favours Capt Abhimanyu with over 45 per cent among the total voters belonging to the minister’s Jat community. Abhimanyu, however, downplayed the role of the caste, claiming that the BJP believed in the principle of ‘Haryana ek, Haryanvi ek’.
What seems to have cemented the mistrust for BJP is the February 2016 Jat reservation agitation. During the Jat reservation protests, Abhimanyu's house in Rohtak was burnt down by protestors. In Narnaund, home constituency of BJP Jat leader and Haryana’s finance minister Captain Abhimanyu, the angst is evident.
Attacking the Congress, Abhimanyu had earlier said the violence during the Jat stir in the State was not caste-based or related to the issue of reservation, but the leaders of the Congress had used the youth of the state to spread unprecedented political and criminal violence in a well planned manner. “Former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, had mentioned his kinship with Sudeep Kalkal, who allegedly masterminded the conspiracy to set his Rohtak home ablaze. Hooda should explain his business and family ties with Sudeep Kalkal, who gave him a job in the agency of Ford, who got his wife appointed in Khanpur College, who got his mother-in-law appointed as member of Consumer Forum and who instigated the riots after gathering 35 community members and lawyers," Abhimanyu had said earlier.
Moreover, a part of the Hisar district of Haryana, this constituency is certainly a one of the prestigious seats considering the importance it holds in the assembly polls. Abhimanyu faces a challenge this time from all three Opposition parties after he won by a small margin of about 5,500 votes in the 2014 polls by defeating the INLD candidate.
In a damage control exercise after party nominee Brijendra Singh trailed in the Narnaund Assembly segment of the Hisar Lok Sabha seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Abhimanyu, motivated party workers to turn the trailing into a big lead in the Assembly elections. At a workers’ meeting in Narnaund town, he said there was no need to get demotivated by the slender lead achieved by rival Jannayak Janta Party candidate Dushyant Chautala over the BJP candidate from the segment. “I am sure the BJP will win by a margin of 30,000 votes over its rivals in Narnaund in the Assembly polls. Dushyant had also taken a lead of 43,000 votes in the 2014 Lok Sabha when he went on to win the elections. But in the Assembly polls held after four months, voters ensured the BJP’s victory,” said Abhimanyu.
In his election rally, Abhimanyu said that the BJP is going to win 75 per cent of the seats in the Jat-dominated region of the State and will sweep the districts of Hisar and Jind. “It is a ‘false propoganda’ of the Opposition parties that the Jats don’t vote for the BJP in Haryana. Party will win all seats in Hisar and Jind and most of the seats in Rohtak, Sonipat and Jhajjar," he added. He said that he results of the Lok Sabha polls just four months ago showed that Jats and all other communities are against dynasty politics in Haryana of the Hooda father-son duo and are with the BJP government.
Abhimanyu said there "was absolutely no competition" and dismissed the challenge from the Jat-centric party of JJP led by Dushyant Chautala, claiming that "the JJP will not win even a single seat in Haryana".
Dr Anand Kumar, Associated Professor, Institute of Integrated and Honours Studies, Kurukshetra University said that JJP is banking on dominant Jat votes as it had made inroads into the Jat community, the vote bank which was once with their parent organisation — INLD.
JJP leader Gautam, a prominent non-Jat leader, also seems to be banking on the caste calculations. Besides development, the BJP is also hoping to get votes on the national issues like abrogation of Article 370 and its cadre vote. The BJP could not do well in Jat dominated area in the 2014 assembly elections but won all the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana in 2019. Hooda himself lost from Sonipat by a huge margin of over 1.5 lakh votes while his son Deepender Hooda lost from Rohtak. This election is going to very interesting and close contested between BJP leader and JJP candidate is expected, he said.