In Haryana, how BJP and Congress have chosen contrasting paths to finish line in candidate lists

Given this, and its fallen tally in the recent Lok Sabha polls – to five out of the 10 seats in Haryana, from a clean sweep in 2019 – the BJP appears to have gone in for a candidate overhaul to counter anti-incumbency. Earlier, in the lead-up to the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP replaced Manohar Lal Khattar as the Chief Minister with Nayab Singh Saini, and carried out many changes in the Cabinet. While Khattar is a Punjabi, Saini is an Other Backward Classes (OBC) leader, with the OBCs forming a significant pillar in the BJP’s poll ambitions.

Apart from 23 sitting MLAs, the BJP has fielded seven candidates who lost in 2019. But as many as 60 are new faces, fighting both in seats it won and lost last time.

BJP vs Congress candidate selection

Among the winners the BJP has opted to repeat are 10 ministers, including former Home Minister Anil Vij from Ambala Cantonment, Minister of State Devender Singh Babli from Tohana, and Agriculture Minister J P Dalal from Loharu.

However, some of the 60 new candidates have replaced some notable leaders, including recently appointed Haryana BJP chief Mohan Lal Badoli in the Rai seat, Education Minister Seema Trikha in Badkhal, Minister for Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes Banwari Lal in Bawal, and former Deputy Speaker Ranbir Gangwa in Nalwa. While Khattar vacated his Karnal seat after being replaced as the CM and moving on to the Lok Sabha, former national hockey captain and state Sports Minister Sandeep Singh is out of the picture, having resigned from the Assembly in 2023 following a sexual assault case.

Among the notable new candidates is Arti Singh Rao, daughter of BJP Gurgaon Lok Sabha MP Rao Inderjit Singh who is the party’s most prominent face in southern Haryana, making her poll debut from Ateli. Bhavya Bishnoi, the BJP’s Adampur candidate, is the son of former Congress Lok Sabha MP Kuldeep Bishnoi and grandson of three-time CM Bhajan Lal. Bhavya had won the seat in a bypoll in 2022 after the father-son duo had joined the BJP. Shruti Choudhry, the candidate in Tosham, is another turncoat. She and her mother Kiran Choudhry, a Congress stalwart, joined the BJP in June this year. The party has also fielded Deepak Hooda, a professional kabaddi player and Arjuna Award recipient, in Meham for his poll debut.

The 60 seats where the BJP has fielded new candidates include 18 that the party won in 2019. Of these 18 seats, it won four with a vote share exceeding 50% and just six with less than 40% of the vote share.

In the remaining 42 seats with new faces, the party replaced a losing candidate, including in 26 seats won by the Congress and eight by the JJP. In these 42 seats, it managed to exceed 40% vote share in just three seats. It had a vote share between 30% and 40% in 12 seats, between 20% and 30% in 19 seats, and less than 20% in seven seats.

Contrasting Congress strategy

Unlike the BJP, the Congress has opted to largely stay the course, repeating 29 of its 31 winners from the 2019 Assembly polls. The party has also re-fielded 17 candidates who lost last time. It has named 43 new candidates and is backing the CPI(M) candidate in Bhiwani. In Baroda, following the death of sitting MLA Krishan Hooda, Induraj Singh Narwal contested the ensuing bypoll and is the party’s candidate again.

The most prominent among the candidates who lost in 2019 but has been fielded again is Udai Bhan, the Haryana Congress chief, who is contesting from Hodal, which he lost to the BJP by just over 3,000 votes last time. Bhan is a close aide of former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who is believed to have decided most of the Congress candidates.

The 43 seats where the Congress has named a new candidate include Adampur and Mulana, which it won in 2019. While in Adampur, the defection of sitting MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi prompted the change, in Mulana, sitting MLA Varun Chaudhary was elected to the Lok Sabha and the party has instead fielded his wife Pooja. Barring these two seats, the Congress lost the remaining 41, including 25 to the BJP and nine to the JJP.

Among the 41 seats where the Congress lost and has now named a new candidate, its candidates lost their deposits in 25 seats, securing less than a one-sixth of the vote share. It managed a vote share higher than 45% in just one seat. The party got between 30% and 40% of the vote share in seven seats, and between 20% and 30% in eight.

Among the 17 candidates who lost in 2019 but have been fielded again, just four had secured a vote share exceeding 40%, seven between 30% and 40%, five between 20% and 30%, and one less than 10%.