The Haryana Legislative Assembly elections have been concluded, and the results have also come out. The results are very surprising where, contrary to the general narrative and exit poll predictions, the BJP once again emerged victorious and Congress lost for the third consecutive time in the state. The victorious party has also created a new record by doing so.
Before this, no political party had been successful in winning the elections for the third consecutive time. Besides this, despite having strong anti-incumbency, forming a government and winning more seats than the previous two elections is a significant accomplishment in a state like Haryana.
A review of the factors contributing to this electoral success is essential. Here are some key reasons:
CONSOLIDATION OF NON – JATS:
While the Congress party has always divided the Hindu votes into different castes, the BJP sought to consolidate the Hindu votes. Since coming to power in 2014, the party has been working on the consolidation of non-Jat votes. First the party made Manohar Lal Khattar the Chief Minister, who is a Punjabi Khatri. Later they chose Nayab Singh Saini, who is an OBC, was made the Chief Minister. With this move, the BJP was successful in getting OBC votes, which are approximately 40 percent in the state. This should not be interpreted as the lack of support for the BJP among Jat Voters. In the Jat Belt, the party secured 14 seats out of 25, while the INC secured 11 seats. In 2019, the BJP and INC won 13 and 6 seats respectively.
THE RSS FACTOR:
RSS played a very crucial role in this election. Unlike the lok sabha elections, when RSS was not very active on the ground, the BJP learned from past mistakes. Leaders listened to the ground workers and RSS, and the result was in their favor. They promptly conducted door-to-door campaigns and distributed voting slips and pamphlets. Overall, 16,000 rallies were held in these four months, which made a huge difference.
OVERCONFIDENCE & INFIGHTING:
Congress leaders were confident of victory even before the results, and there was a tussle between prominent figures like Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Kumari Selja for the post of Chief Minister. Even in ticket distribution, hooda supporters were given priority, which had Selja feeling sidelined.
DIVIDED OPPOSITION:
The Aam Aadmi Party sought to form an alliance for this election but Congress was overconfident about its victory and failed to reach a satisfactory agreement. Besides, other parties had also fielded their candidates due to which the anti-BJP votes got divided and obviously BJP benefited from this.
This marks BJP’s first victory after Lok Sabha elections, boosting their confidence ahead of the upcoming elections in Maharashtra. Meanwhile, Congress needs to introspect and will have to learn from these mistakes in the times to come, only then they can make a comeback.
–Mihir Dhekane
