Chandigarh, October 12
Haryanvis will vote tomorrow to decide who should govern them for the next five years.
The elections have been called seven months early by the ruling Congress, which was emboldened by its success in the last Lok Sabha elections, winning nine of the 10 seats.
Now, the Congress is facing six opponents - the INLD, the HJC, the BJP, the BSP, factionalism and price rise, not necessarily in the same order. Rather the last two have become allies of the Opposition.
The main strengths of the Congress are a badly divided Opposition and the virtual absence of the anti-incumbency factor, hitherto a hallmark of Haryana politics. However, during the run-up to the elections, the ruling party fumbled many a time. It could not decide its candidates well in time. In order to balance various factions, many candidates were transplanted in constituencies to which they were strangers, infuriating local party men. No wonder, at many seats, “the Congress is defeating the Congress”.
Much before the elections were announced, the Congress leadership had given an impression that it would deny the ticket to many sitting MLAs to bring fresh faces. However, again due to factionalism, most MLAs managed the ticket. As a result, though there is no anti-incumbency against Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, there is a strong ill-will among voters against their representatives on certain seats.
Initially, the Congress kept the issue of Chief Minister open, as is its tradition. However, towards the end of the campaigning, AICC president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul gave more than vague hints that Hooda would continue to lead the party if it again formed the government. Why they did so, is known only to them.
If any single party seems to
have made remarkable gains during the campaigning, it is the INLD of former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala. Though he failed to open his party’s account in the Lok Sabha elections, lost its ally and was dumped by his long-standing supporters, Chautala led a high-pitched campaign. He, along with his MP son Ajay Singh Chautala, though both are contesting the elections, criss-crossed the state, energising his supporters and announcing that he might be down but not out. He came out with the most alluring promises in his election manifesto to woo the voters.
The HJC of Kuldeep Bishnoi, the BJP and the BSP are working hard to register their presence on the political scene of the state.
The SAD of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal is contesting two seats, Ambala city and Kalanwali, in alliance with the INLD. The Akalis have made it a prestige issue to win these seats. The reason is obvious. The Akalis want to puncture the movement for the creation of a separate committee to manage Sikh gurdwaras in Haryana.
But the manner in which opposition parties walked in and out of alliances before the elections, made a wag to say: “It seems it is the Congress versus the divorcees.”
These elections will set the agenda for the future politics of the state. The results of this poll will decide if regional parties will continue to provide an alternative to the Congress in the state or some national party will have the space in the future to emerge as an alternative to it.
