Journalism of Courage
The BJP looks set to sweep the state, leading in nine of the 10 seats in the state. The only seat it could lose is Rohtak, where Deepender Hooda has a slender lead over BJP’s Arvind Kumar Sharma. In 2014, the BJP had contested eight seats, of which it won seven (with a vote share of 34.7 per cent); the INLD had won two seats and the Congress one.
So what explains the BJP’s sweep? For one, the Modi factor. Besides, Haryana sends a large population of its youth to the armed forces and the ripples of the Pulawama attack were felt in its villages. The Congress, on its part, was a divided house as was evident both in the panchayat polls and in the Jind by-election in which Congress national spokesman Randeep Singh Surjwala came a distant third.
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The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), the principal Opposition party, split vertically with party supremo Om Prakash Chautala’s younger son Ajai Chautala forming his own Jannayak Janata Party.
Traditionally, Haryana was ruled by the party that got the Jat votes. But the BJP managed to successfully divide the 27 per cent Jat votes in the state while consolidating the non-Jat votes.
