Amitabh Shukla / Chandigarh
With Assembly polls in October and exit polls for Lok Sabha
suggesting a Congress rout in Haryana, Chief Minister Bhupinder Hooda is in
deep trouble. Not even the staunchest Congress supporter in the State sees him
winning again and becoming Chief Minister for the third time.
“The
exit polls have written Hooda’s political obituary. The situation on the ground
reflects what the exit polls showed. No amount of jugglery could save him from
the impending doom in the Assembly polls later this year,” a senior BJP leader
said.
The
exit polls have given only 0-2 seats out of 10 to Congress in Haryana. Many in
the State speculate that the lone seat which the Congress could perhaps win is
Rohtak, the stronghold of Hooda from where his son Deepinder Hooda is
contesting.
Though
BJP has always been a marginal player in the State and banked on alliances for
electoral success, the Modi wave seems to have worked in its favour. If the
exit polls come true, the saffron party would, for the first time, emerge as a
dominating political force in the State.
Interestingly,
unlike the Congress or the Indian National Lok Dal, there is no strong BJP
leader in Haryana nor is the organisation present in the rural areas. Party leaders
attribute the success to the “Modi factor” and the desire of change due to
double anti-incumbency, both in the Centre as well as the State.
After
shunning the scam tainted INLD, led by the Chautalas, BJP formed a non-Jat
platform in Haryana as it allied with Haryana Janhit Congress led by Kuldeep
Bishnoi. While BJP fought on 8 seats, HJC contested from the remaining two. The
two parties are in alliance for the Assembly polls as well but BJP is clearly
emerging as the dominating partner in this alliance. Distancing from INLD and
its leader Om Prakash Chautala perhaps is helping the BJP in the State as
corruption emerged as a major poll issue.
BJP was
also able to successfully negate the challenge of Aam Aadmi Party as it
steadfastly refused to ally with INLD despite its repeated overtures. Both the
top leaders of INLD—OP Chautala and his son Ajay are in jail, convicted in the
teacher’s recruitment scam.
Sensing
the public mood in the State before the Lok Sabha polls, two Congress
MLAs—Venod Sharma and Dharambir left the party with the intention of joining
the BJP. While Sharma was refused entry after the objection of Sushma Swaraj,
Dharambir was given BJP ticket and contested from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh.
As
political leaders are the first to sense public opinion and hunt for better
opportunities, several desertions took place in Congress while it failed to
attract any leader from any party. Sitting Gurgaon MP Rao Inderjit, who was
also a Minister in the UPA I, was the first to leave Congress and contest from
Gurgaon on a BJP ticket. Three former
ministers—Krishna Gehlot, Saroj Sarwan and Ramesh Kaushik also joined BJP.
With
exit polls showing a rout of the Congress and grassroots assessment of the
parties suggesting decimation of the ruling party, BJP sources claimed that
that there are at least half a dozen Congress and Independent MLAs who are in
touch with the party.
“Once
the results of Lok Sabha elections are announced, preparations for the Assembly
polls will begin. It is time for the end of ten year tenure of Hooda,” said a
BJP leader from Ambala.
Hooda
has been facing one problem after the other in his second tenure with several
of his supporting MLAs facing criminal charges. Two of them are in jail facing
murder charges. One was in jail for a long time facing charges of abatement of
suicide of an air hostess. Another is facing charges under the Electoral laws while
one MLA tried to commit suicide. All these brought a crisis of credibility
before the Government.
To add
to his woes, the much publicised Robert Vadra-DLF land deal eroded the faith of
the general public in good governance. Victimisation of whistle blowers and
senior bureaucrats like Ashok Khemka and Sanjiv Chaturvedi repeatedly further
showed the Government in bad light and to what extent it could go.
While
the ruling party faced a crisis of credibility, the Opposition leaders are
languishing in jail on corruption charges. As there was a complete political
vacuum, BJP stepped in to fill the space vacated by both the Congress and the
BJP. (May 14, 2014)
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