Anti-Jat consolidation, aggressive campaign, ticket strategy: how BJP bounced back in Haryana

The Congress’s overarching emphasis on Jat vote appears to have rallied the other communities against the party. Even the Dalit vote, which the Congress had been banking on after its success in wooing them in the Lok Sabha polls, appears to have returned to some extent to the BJP.

In its campaign narrative too, the BJP scored by putting Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini at the centre, even declaring him as the CM face in a break from convention. The BJP banked on the fact that Saini had been in power for less than six months, and thus could dodge the 10-year hangover of party rule.

After dropping many senior leaders for new faces – a strategy that seems to have clicked, as against the Congress move of repeating all its sitting MLAs – the BJP weaved its narrative around what the Saini government had done in terms of jobs and the backward classes, particularly in raising the annual income limit of creamy layer for employment in the OBC category from Rs 6 lakh to Rs 8 lakh.

The limelight on Saini supplemented the party’s focus on OBCs, who make up about 40% of the population. In a state where the CM is typically from the upper-caste Jat community, who form 25% of the population, the BJP had already sent a message by picking M L Khattar after the 2014 win.

The outreach towards Scheduled Caste (SC) voters included women’s self-help groups in villages. The ‘Lakhpati Drone Didis,’ often from Dalit families, became symbols of this outreach. Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally invited many of them.

One of the highlights of the BJP campaign was the promise of “bina parchi, bina kharchi naukri”, the allegation being that under the Congress two terms led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda, jobs could not be had without recommendations or bribes.

The BJP also beat the Congress in the narrative game, ramping up its campaign as early as January with its “Modi ki Guarantee” vans touring villages. Development in GT Road constituencies, which stretch from Ambala to Delhi, was another focal point, with six districts and 25 seats experiencing visible change.

BJP leaders said that the party’s core group ensured that the concerns of “almost every leader who matters on the ground” were taken care of. “The interests and demands of most of the senior leaders were accommodated. The concerns of all those unhappy leaders which were seen as the reason for the party’s less than expected performance in the Lok Sabha elections were taken seriously,” said a party source.

The BJP had come down to five this time from all 10 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, and the results were followed by a spate of resignations and open rebellion by some leaders.

The BJP core team for Haryana included Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the Haryana election in-charge; Biplab Kumar Deb, co-in charge; Satish Poonia, BJP state in charge; CM Sahni; former CM Manohar Lal Khattar; Haryana party chief Mohan Lal Badoli; and Haryana BJP organisation in-charge Faninder Nath Mishra. Party leaders said Pradhan was active on the ground “interacting with workers to understand and resolve their issues”.

The party source said that the core group also had the full backing of the top leadership. “These leaders decided the candidates but the final call was taken by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president J P Nadda.”

The decisive BJP win in Haryana also silences the naysayers who have been talking of a rift with the RSS hurting the party. In Haryana, the RSS was believed to have taken a backseat to the BJP’s own robust organisation.

Top party leaders in turn showed up for over 150 rallies, many addressed by Prime Minister Modi and Shah, compared to around 70 by the Congress.

The crowded Opposition field, with the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party fighting separately, and the presence of the Indian National Lok Dal, BSP, Jannayak Janata Party, Aazad Samaj Party, and numerous Independents, split the anti-BJP vote, further contributing to the Congress’s defeat in several constituencies.