Gopal Kanda’s Support Raises Questions as BJP Prepares to Form Govt in Haryana

A day after the results threw up a hung assembly, the scene has shifted to Delhi.

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party, which fell short of a complete majority in the Haryana assembly elections and finished with 40 seats in the 90-member House, now looks set to form the government with the support of seven independent legislators and Haryana Lokhit Party leader Gopal Kanda.

Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday said, “I am optimistic and we are going to form the government in Haryana.”

BJP now has support of seven independents and Kanda

The newly elected MLAs who have offered support to the party are Dharampal Godan, Nayanpal Rawat, Somvir Sangwan, Rakesh Daulatabad, Randhir Golan, Balraj Kundu and Ranjit Chautala. Apart from them Kanda, who along with Ranjit Chautala, the younger son of former chief minister Devi Lal, was flown to Delhi from Sirsa by BJP on Thursday, also offered to join hands with the party after meeting its working president J.P. Nadda.

BJP working president J.P. Nadda with Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and party’s organising secretary B.L. Santosh (R) during a meeting in New Delhi on October 25. Photo: PTI

The BJP is also hoping that the lone Indian National Lok Dal MLA would also join it. With this it hopes to take the strength of the group up to 49.

Khattar favourite to lead next government

The party will be conducting its legislative party meeting in Chandigarh on Saturday. Though earlier it was being debated if chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar would still be the party’s choice for chief minister, considering BJP under him did not manage to cross the half way mark, Prime Minister Narendra Modi scotched all speculation around the issue by stating at the party headquarters here on Thursday that Khattar would stay in charge.

“Usually we have had to accept whatever was offered to us. If we crossed 10 seats, it would be seen as a major achievement. Emerging as the largest party is very creditable,” he said.

The Prime Minister endorsed the work of both Khattar and Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, stating that “both CMs were inclusive and performed honestly, which helped them win people’s confidence easily.”

Also watch: #BeyondTheHeadlines | The Message from Haryana and Maharashtra

He also termed BJP’s emerging as the single largest party in Haryana as a “huge feat”, saying it also improved its vote share by around three percentage points to about 36%.

Legislative meeting a ‘formality’

With the issue of leadership settled, the BJP legislative party meeting in Chandigarh is only expected to be of academic interest. Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman has been deputed by the party to chair it while general secretary Arun Singh will be present as an observer.

The meeting is scheduled to start at 11 am. The purpose of it is to elect the leader of the legislative party who would meet the governor to stake claim to form the government.

What of women’s security?

In 2009, Kanda had also played a crucial role in helping Congress’s Bhupinder Singh Hooda form the government. As an independent legislator, he extended support to the Congress and was rewarded with a cabinet berth.

But the HLP leader joining the alliance has garnered criticism from opposition and some senior BJP leaders as well.

Kanda was home minister of Haryana, when in August 2012, he was arrested after a former flight attendant, Geetika Sharma, who worked for his MDLR airlines killed herself and accused him of harassment. In February 2013, the flight attendant’s mother also took her own life and left a suicide note.

According to Indian Express, the Delhi high court in March 2014 dropped sexual exploitation charges against Kanda and released him on bail. He continues to face trial in that case, among others registered under the Negotiable Instruments Act. Charges of developing a property illegally in Sirsa were framed against Kanda and his brother in 2016

Speaking to CNN-News18, Geetika’s brother Ankit said that the decision by BJP to count on Kanda’s support came as a “shock” not just “as the victim’s brother but as a layman too.”

“It kills me inside. Now the news of him of parties approaching him…what does it mean to me, my life and my father’s life…this choice of words, calling a criminal a kingmaker, is so disheartening…just see what he has done with someone’s life? We have a famous slogan in Haryana, ‘beti bachao, beti padhao’ and see what they are doing [to honour the memory] of someone’s daughter,” he said.

In a scathing attack, All India Mahila Congress president Sushmita Dev said that BJP allying with Kanda raises questions on its resolve to “provide security to women.” In a letter to Union home minister and BJP president Amit Shah, she has mentioned how Kanda has been “accused of rape, abetment of suicide, hatching a criminal conspiracy in connection with the suicide case”.

Congress leader and spokesperson, Randeep Singh Surjewala, who contested but lost from Kaithal in Haryana, also attacked BJP for not following its words with action. “You should look at the statements made by Narendra Modi and Amit Shah at a time when Gopal Kanda was a minister in the state,” he quipped.

Uma Bharti recalls allegations against Kanda

An even stronger criticism of the move came from senior BJP leader and former Union minister Uma Bharti in the form of several tweets.

“This is the same Gopal Kanda because of whom a girl and her mother committed suicide after not getting justice, the case is still pending in court, and this person is out on bail. Whether Gopal Kanda is innocent or guilty, the law will decide on the basis of evidence. However, winning this election does not acquit him of his crimes. There are many factors in winning an election.”

In the meantime, the Congress and Jannayak Janata Party leaders have also gathered in Delhi to discuss their future strategy. When election trends had started coming in and it appeared that BJP would stop short of a majority, former chief minister and Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda had exuded confidence that his party would form the government.

The party ended up winning 31 seats. He had also urged all parties who fought against BJP to come together to dislodge it.

Likewise, Dushyant Chautala, the leader of Jannayak Janata Party, which broke away from INLD last year, and won 10 seats in the polls, stated that the key to the next government would remain with him. Dushyant met his father Ajay in Tihar Jail on Friday. While he was elected as the legislative party leader by his party’s elected MLAs, he told the media that no decision has been taken on supporting the BJP.

“The party which will agree to our Common Minimum Program under which we had taken the resolution of 75% jobs reservation for Haryanvis, and that of Chaudhary Devi Lal’s idea of old age pension, JJP will give its support to that party,” he said in a press conference.

JJP chief Dushyant Chautala meets newly-elected MLAs in New Delhi, October 25, 2019. Photo: PTI /Manvender Vashist

‘BJP will form government’

Subhash Barala, who was the Haryana BJP chief until his resignation on Thursday, said the BJP will form the government in Haryana. “Most independents are supporting us,” he claimed.

According to reports, Kanda and independent MLA-elect Ranjeet Singh were taken to Delhi in a chartered plane by Sirsa MP Sunita Duggal on Thursday. They told the media before boarding the plane that they will support the party which will work for the development of Sirsa.

Duggal refused to comment on why the two were being rushed to the national capital. “It is an internal matter of the BJP,” she said.

Singh, the brother of former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala, won the Rania seat. He entered the fray as an independent after the Congress did not give him a ticket.