Here a CM, there a CM

It seems that way sometimes but this round of assembly elections is not all happening in Bihar. In Haryana, the BJP and the Congress have so...

It seems that way sometimes but this round of assembly elections is not all happening in Bihar. In Haryana, the BJP and the Congress have sought the deployment of additional paramilitary forces at sensitive polling booths. Both parties are probably wise not to underestimate the ruling INLD8217;s proven capacities to intimidate rivals. But as February 3 draws closer, we wonder whether everyone is missing the point. Because the fiercest battlelines lie elsewhere. It is somewhere else that the honest bloodshed threatens to take place, after the polls. For a clue to the site of the real battle for Haryana, keep track of the number of Haryana Congress leaders indignantly protesting reports of dissidence in the party. No dissidence, said Bhajan Lal. No question of groupism, chimes Selja. They protest too much. In the running for CM, Haryana, are half a dozen jostling leaders, sons and political heirs following close behind.

Perhaps it should come as no surprise that the faultlines within the Congress appear more tightly strained than those between the Congress-INLD. If the last time Haryana went to the polls is any indication, Congress versus INLD may not turn out much of a contest. In Lok Sabha polls 2004, the Congress scored a robust victory, INLD fortunes dipped alarmingly. Add to that the fact that the Congress has traditionally scored well in Haryana when the opposition does not assume the shape of a strong social or political coalition, and the INLD8217;s recent split with the BJP, and the Congress morale is justifiably high. It8217;s just that there are so many morales, soaring separately. Let8217;s see, there8217;s Bhajan Lal, Selja, Bansi Lal, Shamsher Singh Surjewala, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Birendra Singh, Bhoopinder Singh Hooda 8212; at last count.

The Congress8217;s many wannabe chief ministers underline a rather serious phenomenon. Haryana, more than other states, is the homeground of the political entrepreneur. In Haryana, especially, there is a long history of alliances made and broken just before polls. It is the state where the voter8217;s candidate-identification is stronger than party-identification because candidates move so nimbly between parties, to the winning party. It is embarrassingly in the natural order of things that the Congress8217;s perceived advantage in Haryana should translate literally into a chief ministerial candidate in every district.