Congress has an edge in Haryana

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is confident of winning all the 10 seats in the state

 As Haryana’s 10 Parliamentary constituencies go to polls on May 7, the Congress has an edge over its principal rivals, the INLD-BJP combine and the Haryana Janhit Congress, in at least five seats.

The results of the current Parliamentary polls are expected to provide a cue to the upcoming state Assembly election which is less than a year away from now. Luckily for the state Congress ruled by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda for over four years, anti-incumbency is not a predominant factor going into the polls.

However, starting with the benchmark of its 2004 performance, when the Congress had won 9 out of 10 seats in the state, it may find the going tough to match or outlast that performance. The BJP had won the remaining one seat in the last election.

Hooda, whose personal prestige is at stake in the current electoral battle which is being seen as a referendum on his government, claims a “pro-incumbency” wave in favour of the party claiming that the party would sweep all the 10 seats.

The chief minister is hoping the electorate would endorse the party on the strength of his populist schemes and sops for virtually every section of society during his four-year tenure. Thousands of crores worth  sops were announced for senior citizens, students, farmers, youth, widows, employees and SC/STs by the Hooda government.

In-house dissidence

“I have worked whole-heartedly for you in the past four years. I hope you will support us wholeheartedly in this election,” he repeatedly tells the electorate. However, more than the rivals, it is the in-house dissidence that may cost the party dear in some seats. Two ministers in Hooda’s cabinet, Birender Singh and A C Choudhary, had publicly revolted against the ticket distribution.

Among the party’s Union ministers in the contest, Kumari Selja from Ambala and Rao Inderjeet from Gurgaon face tough battles against their BJP and BSP rivals respectively.
The now-on, now-off alliance between the Congress’ main rivals, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) headed by Jat strongman Om Prakash Chautala and the BJP is expected to give tough fight to the Congress candidates in at least three constituencies including Bhiwani-Mahendragarh, where 33-year old Shruti Choudhary, granddaughter of former chief minister Bansi Lal is in the fray against Chautala’s son Ajay.

The alliance has stuttered on the ground as a section of the state BJP has been staunchly opposed to any alliance with Chautala’s party and the respective workers have failed to enthusiastically support the ally candidate in several constituencies.

One of the BJP MLAs quit the party on poll eve to join the Congress in protest against the alliance stitched together by the BJP high command. The two parties had parted ways before the 2004 Parliamentary polls and had lost from all the 10 seats. The two reluctant allies had done wonderfully well in 1999 when they had swept all the 10 seats in the state. However, they would be happy to achieve even a fraction of that electoral performance this time.

The alliance pitched L K Advani, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Chauhan to campaign for the party candidates.
Among other players in the fray is Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) formed by Kuldeep Bishnoi, son of four-time chief minister Bhajan Lal.

The 77-year old Bhajan Lal, who quit the Congress four years ago in protest against the high command ignoring his claim and choosing Hooda as chief minister, is a strong candidate from Hisar as he is asking for “retirement” vote from the electorate attempting to strike an emotional chord by saying this is his last electoral battle.

The HJC is hoping to bank on its non-Jat vote bank to upset the applecart of the Congress and the INLD candidates, most of whom draw their support from the predominant Jat community.

The party is resting its hopes on old warhorse Bhajan Lal’s victory from Hisar while at other seats their candidates could at best play vote spoilers for the other parties.
The BSP which has tried to replicate its social engineering formula by fielding non-Jat candidates from all the 10 constituencies is not expected to cause sleepless nights for its rivals, though Mayawati’s rallies have drawn huge crowds in the state. Gurgaon is the only seat where the party candidate, Zakir Hussein, is in serious fight against his rivals.