The ruling alliance of Bharatiya Janata Party-Jannayak Janata Party in Haryana has faced yet another electoral defeat failing to wrest the Ellenabad assembly segment from the Indian National Lok Dal in the midst of ongoing farmers’ protest at Delhi-Haryana borders against the three central farm laws.
The outcome of the bypoll may not make any significant numerical impact to the BJP-JJP Government in the state but the defeat of its nominee Gobind Kanda is a major blow to the ruling alliance and is seen as another warning of growing resentment among the farming community in the agrarian state.
This is the second electoral defeat of the ruling alliance after last year’s bypoll in Sonipat’s Baroda assembly seat, which the Congress had managed to retain.
In Ellenabad, INLD candidate Abhay Chautala’s victory over BJP’s Gobind Kanda by a slender margin of 6739 votes is considered as a shot in the arm for INLD in general and the Chautala family in particular. Abhay is the younger son of former Chief Minister and INLD patriarch OP Chautala.
The INLD, which was fighting for its survival in politics, successfully managed to cash in on anti BJP-JJP sentiment due to farmers’ protest and consolidated its position among the Jat vote bank. The BJP, on the other hand, failed to acknowledge the palpable anti-government sentiment on the ground due to farmers’ agitation for more than 11 months now.
Political analysts say that the result is a major embarrassment for the BJP in particular, which is celebrating completion of seven years of its government’s tenure under Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar in Haryana. The outcome of the bypoll also indicates the waning popularity of JJP among its core Jat vote bank and should ring alarm bells for the JJP.
Not just the caste calculations but the pro-development and corruption-free agenda built up by the saffron party during campaigning did not help it in wooing the voters in Ellenabad, which is a Jat-dominated rural assembly constituency, says political experts.
The BJP had fielded a non-Jat Gobind Kanda in Ellenabad in an attempt to polarize the non-Jat voters against the two prominent Jat candidates in the fray. Both INLD’s Abhay Chautala and Congress’ Pawan Beniwal were two prominent Jat candidates among total 19 nominees contesting the high-pitched bypoll.
Gobind is the brother of founder of Haryana Lokhit Party (HLP) and Sirsa MLA Gopal Kanda, who has been supporting the BJP in the 90-member Haryana Vidhan Sabha.
Reacting to the defeat, Haryana BJP chief OP Dhankar alleged that the BJP was stopped from campaigning in Ellenabad. The farmers’ issues were politicized by INLD and Congress, he said. Dhankar said that despite strong protests, the BJP has recorded an increase in the number of votes from the last elections and the margin of victory was not big.
INLD’s Abhay Chautala has meanwhile termed his victory as “victory of farmers” who are protesting against anti-farm laws for more than 11 months at Delhi-Haryana borders.
The ongoing farmers’ protest remained a key election issue in Ellenabad, known as Chautala's citadel. The farmers’ unions had in fact made an appeal to the voters to boycott the ruling party’s candidate in the bypoll. At several places during campaigning, the BJP nominee and senior party leaders had to face the protest of farmers.
Notably, the Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala, Cabinet Ministers, senior BJP and JJP leaders had campaigned extensively in Ellenabad making it a Chautala Vs Chautala bypoll. The Chief Minister had during his election meetings emphasized on the fact that a big part of the Chautala family is with the BJP now. He had referred to Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala, JJP chief Ajay Singh Chautala and Power Minister and independent MLA Ranjit Singh Chautala, who are part of the BJP-led coalition government now.
In November last year, the main opposition Congress had retained the Baroda assembly seat with its candidate Indu Raj Narwal defeating the BJP nominee and Olympian wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt by over 10000 votes. This was Dutt’s second consecutive defeat from the Baroda constituency. At that time, the Congress had also linked its victory in the Baroda assembly seat to the prevailing unrest in the farming community in the state over agriculture laws. In the 90-member State Assembly, the BJP has 40 assembly seats while the main opposition Congress has 31 MLAs.