Haryana politics has often been regarded as the politics of aayaram and gayaram, that is, of people coming and going. Politicians change their affiliations as easily and quickly as their clothes. Thus every election in the state brings not only new leaders but also entirely new political organisations.
A look at the recent history of Haryana reveals that over the past two decades, only two parties have remained constant and material to the state’s politics in their original form – Congress and BJP. The former has been integral to a larger extent and the latter to a relatively smaller degree. Most other parties have changed their shape, names or affiliations.
Another crucial aspect of Haryana politics over the last five decades has been how prominent Congress leaders and former chief ministers have gone on to create dynasties of their own and floated their own political parties. These parties have, till this day, remained relevant, even though those leaders or their descendants may have later returned to their parent parties.
Also read: Ex-Haryana Chief Ashok Tanwar Quits Congress, Says Youth Leaders Are Being Eliminated
Interestingly, the trend set by three prominent former Congress leaders – Devi Lal (who became chief minister after leaving the party), Bansi Lal and Bhajan Lal (who rebelled and floated their own parties after becoming chief ministers) – was almost repeated recently by another former Congress chief minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, when he threatened to part ways if the ticket distribution did not happen his way.
Congress, weighed by the burden of its own experiences, relented this time and made him the legislative party leader and in-charge of the party’s election campaign.
Devi Lal
Devi Lal was a Jat leader of Sirsa district who was elected member of Punjab Assembly in 1952 and president of Punjab Congress in 1956. He had also played an active role in the formation of Haryana. He left the Congress in 1971 and never returned.
After being jailed for 19 months during Emergency, he became chief minister of Haryana twice – first as a Janata Party leader in 1977 and then, in 1987, as leader of Lok Dal, which he had formed. Lal also became deputy prime minister twice in the V.P. Singh and Chandra Shekhar governments between 1989 and 1991.
Haryana parties’ vote share through the years:
The INLD split
Devi Lal’s son Om Prakash Chautala became chief minister of Haryana four times.
He, along with his son Ajay Chautala, was charged in a recruitment scam of 2008 and convicted for 10 years. While Chautala’s elder son Abhay and Ajay stuck together till the 2014 Assembly elections, they later parted ways when Ajay’s son Dushyant Chautala formed the Jannayak Janata Party.
In this election, JJP is fighting as a separate entity. The INLD, under Abhay, has allied with the Shiromani Akali Dal, which is an alliance partner of BJP at the Centre.
Bansi Lal
Bansi Lal is the second of the three Lals who dominated Haryana politics. He served as chief minister thrice and was considered a close confidante of Indira Gandhi’s. He was also defence minister from 1975 to 1977 in her government and then, railway minister from 1984 to 1986, when Rajiv Gandhi was prime minister.
Bansi Lal left the Congress in 1996 and formed the Haryana Vikas Party. His main constituency, however, was Bhiwani. In the 1996 election, his party won 33 seats in the 90-member Assembly and formed the government with the help of BJP which won 11 seats.
Samata Party, which was a breakaway faction of Janata Dal and was led by socialists like George Fernandes, bagged 24 seats while the Congress won nine. He died in 2006, a year after his son Surender Singh was killed in a helicopter crash.
Surender was a minister in the Congress government at the time of his death. His wife, Kiran Chaudhary is a senior leader of the Congress, having served as Deputy Speaker and legislature party leader. She was replaced by Hooda as legislature party leader just before the announcement of the 2019 elections.
Bhajan Lal
Like Bansi Lal, Bhajan Lal was another Congress chief minister and former Union Minister who left the party and formed his own. He became chief minister thrice, in 1979, 1982 and 1991, served as Union agriculture minister and represented Adampur.
Also read: Ground Report: What Women’s Safety Means in Poll-Bound Haryana
After Congress made Hooda the chief minister following a victory in the 2005 elections, Bhajan Lal – who was a non-Jat and belonged to the Bishnoi caste – left the party and floated Haryana Janhit Congress. He won the 2009 Lok Sabha election on his own party symbol.
Following his death in 2011, his son Kuldeep Bishnoi kept the party alive. Bishnoi won the Adampur seat in the 2014 elections but merged his party with the Congress in 2016. He is now the Congress candidate from Adampur.
BJP’s graph
As for the BJP, it has seen its graph grow gradually in the state. The party formed its first government with a full majority in 2014 when it won 47 seats.
Also read: BJP Comes Out With Manifesto to Create ‘Ram Rajya’ in Haryana
Manohar Lal Khattar, who hails from Karnal and is a Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh member, was hand-picked as the chief minister by the party’s central leadership.
Under him, the BJP improved its tally in Lok Sabha elections in the state from seven in 2014 to a clean sweep of all 10 seats earlier this year.
The BJP is going into this election with the slogan of “Abki baar 75 paar” (‘This time, we will cross 75’). But a rejuvenated Congress under Hooda and new state unit president Kumari Selja, the newcomer JJP headed by former MP Dushyant Chautala and the changed dynamics of Dera, Jat and Dalit politics in the state pose a major challenge to its lofty ambitions.