Fatehabad, May 12
The election time is defection time as well. More so in Haryana, known as the ‘land of Aaya Rams and Gaya Rams’. Many would credit the former Chief Minister, Mr Bhajan Lal, for getting this epitaph for the state for organising the en mass defection of the entire Janata Party ministry into the Congress when Mrs Indira Gandhi returned to power in 1980.
But this credit to Mr Bhajan Lal had been undue. Haryana, earned this dubious reputation in the late sixties when an MLA, Mr Gaya Ram, changed the party loyalties more than once in a single day. It was then the then Union Home Minister, Mr Y.B. Chavan, described Haryana as the land of “Aaya Rams and Gaya Rams” while replying to a debate on the political situation then prevailing in the state.
More than 35 years after Mr Chavan’s description of the state, the situation had not changed much, though the anti-defection law had checked the defections by MLAs. Now the game of defection was played by members of the civic bodies and third or fourth rung leaders of political parties. Fatehabad is no exception to the rule.
The law of political gravity claimed that the flow of defections would be more towards the ruling party. The law stood its ground in Fatehabad, where the persons deserting their parties and joining the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) numbered the maximum. It was mostly Congressmen who were joining the INLD, though a few activists of the Haryana Vikas Party (HVP), too, had jumped on to the bandwagon of the ruling party.
The Congress had been able to woo so far only the activists of the BJP. It was not that the INLD is also free from defections. The flow from the ruling party was mainly to the HVP. Since neither of these parties had any membership record like the Left parties, many a time it became difficult to ascertain the claim of a defector whether he had really been a member of the political party which he claimed to have deserted. The party at the loosing end normally disowned the person, saying he has already been expelled from the membership.
In Fatehabad the ball was set rolling by Mr Bhajan Lal, who managed to win over a former president of the district unit of the BJP, Dr Atam Prakash Manchanda, even before the formal election notification was issued.
However, so far the biggest catch had been made by the INLD, which allured the secretary of the Haryana Congress, Mr Ram Raj Mehta, who was also the covering candidate of the Congress nominee, Mr Dura Ram. Mr Mehta left the party even before he withdrew his papers in favour of Mr Dura Ram after the scrutiny of the nomination papers.
The election time was also the time for ‘home coming’ for many. Mr Mehta, who had left the INLD a few years ago and contested the elections on the Congress ticket, had completed the cycle by returning to the INLD fold. Similarly, the all-India general secretary of the BJP Mahila Morcha, Mrs Sandhya Bajaj, who was once close to Mr Bhajan Lal, returned to the Congress during the Fatehabad election time. Today, the Akali Dal (Mann)
nominee, Mr Baljit Singh, also declared his support to the INLD.
The other Congressmen who defected to the INLD under the persuasion of Mr Abhey Singh Chautala, MLA son of the Chief Minister, included Mr Vinod Batra, former president of the block unit of the party; Mrs Usha Dahiya, Mr Gobind Choudhary and Mr Sushil Narang, Municipal Councillors; Mr Baldev Singh Bhodiya Khera, former Chairman of the Fatehabad Market Committee; and Mr Paramjit Malhotra, a Congress activist.
Those who travelled from the HVP to the Congress included Mr Kuljit Kuleria, a former president of the block unit of the party and nephew of Mr Bansi Lal, the party President, and two HVP activists, Mr Joginder Singh Rana and Mr Atma Ram Godara.
The HVP, in return, was able to woo Mr Randhir Singh, Zila Parishad member; and Mr Vinod Garhwal of Daulatpur village and Block Samiti member, among
others, from the INLD.
