New Delhi: Sitting MLA from Rohtak, Deepender Singh Hooda of the Congress, contesting from Sonipat, is the only non-BJP candidate leading in Haryana. With a split in Indian National Lok Dal impacting voting preferences, BJP is leading in nine seats.
In six constituencies – Ambala, Bhiwani-Mahendragarh, Faridabad, Kurukshetra, Hisar and Gurugram, the BJP candidates Rattan Lal Kataria, Dharambir Singh, Krishan Pal, Nayab Singh, Brijendra Singh and Rao Inderjeet Singh have crossed margins of over one lakh votes against their immediate opponents.
Gurgaon BJP candidate Rao Inderjit Singh leads by 1,89,393 votes, with a vote share of 65.58%. Faridabad BJP candidate Krishan Pal Gurjar leads by 1,43,041 votes, with a vote share of 69.29%.
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In Haryana, it is a battle of legacies of four prominent political families – the Hoodas, the Chautalas, the Bishnois and Bansi Lal’s family.
In 2014, the Bharatiya Janata Party won seven of the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana and followed it up with a sweep in the Assembly elections later the same year. Though the state has witnessed a lot of violence over the years and the issue of Jat reservation has also resurfaced many times, the split in the Indian National Lok Dal was always believed, would go in favour of the BJP. And with the party now leading in all the 10 seats, it seems that aspect is coming true.
The reason for this is that INLD, a party originally started by former deputy prime minister Devi Lal as Lok Dal, had split and with it and split the Jat vote in the state. Even during the Modi wave of 2014, INLD had won two seats of Sirsa and Hisar. It had secured 24.43% votes as against BJP’s 34.84%. The Congress was relegated to the third spot with 22.99% votes and just one seat of Rohtak.
The assembly election later the same year saw a BJP government getting installed in the state for the first time. A non-Jat, Manohar Lal Khattar, was made chief minister by the party to send a message to people that it was willing to accept that the state, which has 27% Jat population, could not be treated as a fiefdom of just one community.
The polling percentages for all the three main parties were more or less similar. BJP polled 33.2%, INLD got 24.1% and Congress polled 20.6% of the votes. In a three-cornered fight, BJP bagged 47 of the 90 seats, INLD bagged 19 and Congress got 15.
In this election, the state has again voted enthusiastically. The polling percentage was only a shade lower than 71.45% in 2014 at 70.30%.
A major difference in Haryana politics this time has been the split in the INLD due to differences between the successors of senior party leader and former CM Om Prakash Chautala, who has been serving a jail term for the past many years.
While the original INLD was retained by his younger son Abhay Chautala, the elder Ajay Chautala along with his son Dushyant Chautala floated a new party, Jannayak Janata Party, which allied with Aam Aadmi Party for the polls.
However, as Jats have traditionally voted for the Lok Dal and then the INLD, this split has also meant a split in their vote.
On the other hand, BJP under Khattar has been working towards consolidating the non-Jat votes and this has been a major reason for the parties rise in constituencies like Sonipat, Karnal, Kurukshetra and Haryana which fall along G.T. Road.
Another player in this election is the Bahujan Samaj Party, which has allied with Loktantra Suraksha Party. Though BSP is not a major player, it has been contesting the state regularly for the past two decades and securing around five per cent votes at the minimum.