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ASSEMBLY elections
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What’s at stake for who
 PDP:
Charged up on Lok Sabha results National Conference:
Nothing to show for work BJP:
No state leader, but it has the wave Congress:
In battle without a general
road ahead for state govt
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Expect major upsets in J&K
As the NC and Congress struggle to stay relevant in J&K politics, the PDP and BJP are both hoping to form the govt without allies. The floods in Kashmir will provide a fertile ground for issues, even more than some of the deeper fault lines of the Valley. by Arun Joshi
The
toughest Assembly polls in the electoral history of Jammu and Kashmir are upon the state, packed with enthusiasm among the parties in favour of holding elections on time, even as there is extreme scepticism in the ruling National Conference camp.
Unlike polls in other states, elections in this Himalayan state assume international significance, primarily because of the continuing dispute over the territory between India and Pakistan. Among the most enthusiastic in the state now are two parties, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of the Muftis — Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and his daughter Mehbooba Mufti — and the BJP, which is making every push to accomplish its dream of forming the government on its own in this only Muslim-majority state in the country. Having tasted a record victory in the parliamentary elections earlier this year, the PDP is hoping to script a new chapter in this era of coalitions in the state to form a single-party government for the first time since 1996.
Opening strategies The PDP sees benefits on three factors. One, the victory in the parliamentary elections, when it won in 39 out of the 46 Assembly segments in the Valley, winning all three Lok Sabha seats and leaving the ruling National Conference (NC) electorally decimated. The NC had contested in alliance with its ruling coalition partner Congress. The immediate fallout of the defeat was that the NC and Congress parted ways. This brought about a second advantage to the PDP, which believes NC and Congress votes would get divided and the PDP would gain. Third, it is banking on the dismal performance of the ruling coalition government during the floods. The PDP leadership is accusing the NC and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah of having failed to check the deluge and save people in time. At the same time, the PDP has kept its channels opened with the Congress and the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party. If need be, it could take support from these two parties that have a base in the Jammu region. Allying with the BJP would cost it dearly in Kashmir politics.
The challenger The BJP has emerged a strong factor in the state, with the Modi wave fetching it both the Lok Sabha seats of Jammu region (37 Assembly segments) and one in Ladakh (four Assembly segments). Its ambition to form the government on its own by winning 44-plus seats is based on the assumption that it would sweep the Jammu and Ladakh regions.
From BJP president Amit Shah to all ticket hopefuls the catchphrase is “Ab Jammu and Kashmir ki bari”. The BJP’s calculations are threefold: array all religious sects and ethnic minorities on one side; take semi-separatists on board; and leverage the work done by the RSS cadre in Kashmir during the floods. Though there are no defined minorities in J&K, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Kashmiri Pandits, and Christians deem themselves as minorities in the Muslim-dominated state.
All these combined form more than 50 per cent of the over 72 lakh voters in the state. And, the BJP hopes that the Sunni Muslim votes would get divided among the PDP, Congress and the NC. However, such arithmetic is not the way politics works in Jammu and Kashmir. There are a number of constituencies where Hindu voters are in substantial numbers, but Muslims are in overwhelming majority. Then there are sub-regions with aspirations that are incompatible with the BJP’s agenda of Uniform Civil Code, abrogation of Article 370, etc. The other parties are aware of the BJP’s strategies, and are moving accordingly. The Congress knows the development undertaken by the party and its ministers while it was in power at the Centre, or by those who are in the state government, is not going to get it votes. They will have to employ some other strategy to counter the BJP’s juggernaut. It has to show it is still a force to reckon with.
State poll history 1977: The NC sweeps elections; Janta Party the second largest party, Congress third.
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PDP
The challenge before the PDP is to repeat its Lok Sabha performance. But Assembly elections have different issues. The party had fielded the best of its leaders in the parliamentary polls, including PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, who has a pan-Valley appeal. The other two leaders were Muzzaffar Hussein Beig and Tariq Hamid Karra. In the Assembly polls, the top leaders will have to get votes for the party candidates, some of whom are new to electoral politics. This may not be easy. Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, in his 70s, is the unifying force in the party. His public relations and connection with the cadre is unparalleled. The party is dependent on him for the strategies and leadership, but his health is a matter of concern. He may not be able to campaign as he did in the 2002 and 2008 Assembly polls. His movement is must for the party because people trust him and his three-year rule as chief minister from 2002 to 2005 is regarded as the best period. Over the years, particularly with the tireless work of Tariq Hamid Karra, the party has overcome the tag of being restricted to the rural areas of south Kashmir. It is now pan-Valley party that is a serious contender for the Treasury Benches.
National Conference
For the party the moment of truth has come. Its splendid history of the pre-1947 era and the initial historical reforms of giving land to the tiller during the first part of Sheikh Mohmmad Abdullah’s rule in the late 1940s and early 1950s are almost forgotten today for most of the population in Kashmir. People remember the party for what it has done in the past six years leading the coalition government. The black spots of this period score over the bright ones. The most damaging are the pictures of blood-splattered streets of Kashmir in 2010, when more than 120 youths were killed in police and CRPF firing. If there was any hope of saving the day, that was washed away in the September 2014 floods. Even Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has conceded that much of the work that his government did in building infrastructure has been washed away by the floods and he has very little to show. Roads, bridges, buildings and other infrastructure have either collapsed or been damaged. A crisis of leadership also exists in the party. Omar’s arrival on the state’s political scene as chief minister in 2009 had stirred hope that he would bring about massive administrative changes, end corruption and introduce transparency in the system. The opposite happened. Today, the government reeks of corruption, the bureaucracy has been politicised and communal considerations have weighed on selecting people for the top posts or in the post-retirement re-appointments. At times, bureaucrats have been shifted within a couple of days of their posting. Certain non-performing bureaucrats have been rewarded, while those who worked and stood by the government in the worst of times have been marginalised. The blame for all this will be laid at Omar’s doorstep. Omar, rated by many as one of the intelligent leaders having the sincerity to deliver, has either been overcautious or has overreacted to situations. This perception about him and his government, particularly after the recent floods, has reinforced the public view that the NC is no longer the people-oriented party of the 1970s and ’80s. Farooq Abdullah is not keeping well, and that has affected the health of the party as well. The NC will need a miracle to stay relevant in the political arena of Jammu and Kashmir.
BJP
No state party leader has mass appeal. It has worked out a strategy keeping this in mind. The party could go for unprecedented appeasement — was unheard of even during Congress rule. That may deliver dividends but it also runs the risk of losing its best bet in the Jammu region.
The BJP also has the baggage of corruption as it is yet to come out of the shadow of the voting scandal during the legislative council elections of 2011, when seven of its 11 MLAs allegedly voted for the ruling party candidate. The party candidate got only four votes. Money is alleged to have changed hands. There were vague responses, but BJP leaders did nothing to challenge the charges. This corruption blot is going to stick during the Assembly elections too. The BJP also has been as discriminatory against the Jammu region as other parties. It is going all-out to woo voters in new territories while taking the people of Jammu for granted, living in the belief that Jammu voters have no other option but the BJP. It sees fortune in the failures of the National Conference-Congress government and also believes that the PDP would not be able to match its material and cadre power in Jammu. As backup strategy for a situation where it fails to get the numbers it is hoping for, the BJP is keeping open channels of communication with parties it believes can be its future allies. It could be either the NC, the PDP or a group of Independents. At the moment, it is also wooing leaders of other parties to brighten its prospects. This is a gamble the party is willing to take to become a stakeholder in ruling the state.
Congress
The Jammu region, its bastion, is under threat from the BJP, which had ousted it from 24 of the 37 Assembly segments in the region. Even as the Congress faces a decline and a confused leadership at the national level, in Jammu and Kashmir it has no leadership to speak of. Former chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad is a leader recognised in all three regions and has a personal rapport with the party leaders. But his political compulsion is that he spends most of his time in New Delhi. Within the state, PCC chief Saif-ud-Din Soz has not been able to keep the flock together and many a time has played politics that has damaged the party and its interests. As a consequence, the party is finding it difficult to get suitable candidates for all constituencies, after having lost the Lok Sabha polls. The Congress was never this low in the state, not even post-1977 Lok Sabha elections when it was routed at the national level.
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road ahead for state govt
What Khattar lacks in admn skills, he makes up in political experience
The
unanimous choice of Manohar Lal Khattar as leader of the BJP’s legislature group has not surprised party insiders. After the BJP emerged as the single largest party around noon on October 19, speculation started about who would emerge king — all of which was perhaps pointless. The very filing of his nomination from Karnal by Khattar was a step towards putting in motion Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah’s plan. Modi’s launch of the election campaign from Karnal was an endorsement of Khattar, understood well in the party.
Even as people spoke of Jat or non-Jat aspirants for the CM’s post, Shah reportedly called Khattar two days before the polling to ask him: “Do you need more resources, manpower, booth managers or anything else? You have to win this seat with a clear mandate.”
Now that Karnal voters have given Khattar what he wanted — a handsome victory margin — and the BJP has handed the reins to the man who has contested and won the first ever election in his life, many have started questioning his administrative abilities. How will Khattar run the government without any administrative experience? Will Modi run Haryana, and Khattar only be a front? Will the bureaucrats in Haryana have a free hand under the fourth ‘Lal’ to occupy the hot seat since the state was carved out of Punjab in 1966? In Modi’s footsteps “Modi has emerged the most powerful leader of the country, but he too had no administrative experience when he was picked up to head Gujarat in 2001,” argues a BJP leader. Other similarities are also being pointed out between the two. Both are living single. Khattar also remained unattached and struggled to educate his siblings. While Modi was handing out tea, Khattar was selling clothes in his small business in Delhi’s Sadar Bazaar. This ‘Bhishma Pitamah’ of personal life had vowed to settle his two brothers and a sister. In public life too Khattar has proved invincible. Modi, who has worked with him closely, recognises the talent. Before becoming chief minister of Gujarat in 2001 Modi had lived in Panchkula, being the BJP’s zonal in-charge for Punjab, Haryana, HP and J&K. Modi was appointed chief minister years after he engineered the BJP’s victory there in 1995 and 1998. Similarly, Khattar who hails from Rohtak district, has been instrumental in establishing the base of the BJP in Haryana. The party had contested all 90 seats in 2004 but won only two. In 2009 the BJP contesting alone improved its tally to four. In the third solo attempt the BJP has secured majority by wresting 47 seats. Delivered for party Khattar is now being labelled as the BJP campaign in-charge who ensured the grand win. A kingmaker thus far, he started working with Modi in 1996, when Modi was the party’s in-charge for Haryana. Impressed by Khattar’s organisational abilities, Modi asked him to manage the elections in Kutch, which was facing an anti-BJP wave in the aftermath of the Bhuj earthquake. Khattar’s effort resulted in the BJP winning three of the six seats. But Khattar was beginning to feel neglected for not being given a taste of power himself. A disciplined RSS pracharak, he continued to serve without complaint. When the first assembly elections were held in Chhattisgarh in 2003, Khattar was sent to Raipur. He helped the BJP come to power in a territory that had been a Congress stronghold. By 2004, Khattar found himself in charge of 12 states, including Delhi and Rajasthan. He worked directly under the command of RSS ideologue Bal Apte (Balasaheb Apte), who was then heading the Chunaav Sahayak Yojana. Immediately thereafter Khattar, also like Modi, landed with the responsibility of Regional Sangathan Mahamantri for J&K, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh. His tenure saw several successes, including the BJP winning 11 seats for the first time in J&K. As a Sangh Pracharak, he worked extensively in Haryana during his postings at Faridabad, Rohtak, Jagadhri, Yamunanagar, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Hisar and Bhiwani. Until recently he would often travel by bus or train to get a feel of the state. After he joined the BJP in 1994 he was made the party’s general secretary and sent to Haryana. Ever since, he has maintained a close contact with his home state. Slick inside Khattar’s rustic looks are deceptive. In his khadi attire, (though he wears raw silk on special occasions) he may cause someone to take him for a common man. However, the fluency with which he switches his conversation between Hindi, English and Punjabi baffles those hearing him for the first time. His comfort with computer and PowerPoint presentations could surprise many a bureaucrat. To those who question Khattar’s administrative abilities, the BJP’s answer is: “Khattar and Modi’s profile are very similar. Both have risen from the grassroots and know where the systems ‘don’t work’ more than ‘how they work’. Khattar has to be watched to see how far he goes and makes Haryana grow,” says BJP Kisan Wing national president O.P. Dhankar. The BJP played the non-Jat card and to strengthen itself it has picked a non-Jat as chief minister, something that was conceived the day it decided to go it alone. With Khattar, a ‘Punjabi’ non-Jat face of the party, the BJP has established itself as an independent force that would not need an alliance to hold power in the state.
The challenges
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The
BJP fought on the plank of
regional discrimination. “Sabka saath, sabka vikas” is the first
slogan Chief Minister-designate ML Khattar gave after he was chosen
the leader of the party in the 13th Haryana Vidhan Sabha. But the way
people have voted for the BJP, has put it in a situation that may
invite the same charge as the Congress.
The BJP won 47 seats, mainly
in north and south Haryana with small pockets in the centre. Party
heavyweights have won from adjoining Assembly segments, making Khattar’s
task of choosing his Cabinet difficult. In the Deswali belt of Jhajjar,
Rohtak and Sonepat districts, the BJP won only Rohtak, Sonepat and
Bhadurgarh segments, so the area will be represented by an MLA from
here. However, in western Haryana—Dabwali (Sirsa) to Uklana (Hisar)—and
all the way down to Loharu and Tosham, both in Bhiwani, the BJP has no
seat. As a result, it won’t be able to induct any minister from
here. Though Khattar has said he will represent all areas, generally
only the areas with a voice in the Cabinet manage a fair amount of
development. Earlier governments have punished regions for not voting
for their nominees, but even if the BJP has no such intention, the
results will be on predictable lines. There is talk in the BJP circles that Tohana (Fatehabad) and Hisar, which mark the furthest point in the party victory towards western Haryana, should be accommodated to give the region representation. At the same time, the segments of Uchana Kalan (Jind) and Narnaund (Hisar) have been won by Prem Lata (wife of Birender Singh) and Captain Abhimanyu, and any allocation of the Cabinet position to anyone else may not be possible. The
senior BJP leadership in Delhi feels the Cabinet should be limited to
nine. This will allow the party to focus on austerity, while keeping
open the possibility of rewarding “deserving” legislators at a
later stage. Though the induction of heavyweights like OP Dhankar and
Anil Vij is certain, the party is having a tough time deciding among
the first timers. The inner circles say that state party president Ram
Bilas Sharma should be made the Speaker, even though he is keen to be
a minister. In 2004, the BJP won two seats and in 2009, four. With
47 seats this time, most faces are new and each one has the support of
some central leader. Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is
pitching for Kalka legislator Latika Sharma, Union State Minister Rao
Inderjit for Badshapur legislator Rao Narbir Singh and Union Shipping
Minister Krishan Pal Gurjar for Faridabad MLA Vipul Goel. Several
other first timers like Badhkal MLA Seema Trikha and Sukhvinder from
Badhra are believed to be in the race for appointment as chief
parliamentary secretaries with independent charge. The BJP think-tank
has suggested that for the party to consolidate its mass base and
build cadres for future, it must have a minister from areas within all
10 parliamentary segments. — Naveen S Garewal
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HOW PARTY WON
However Haryana, too, flowed with
the Modi wave that turned the party’s fortunes despite rebellion
within over “turncoats” from rival parties joining the BJP and a
tug-of-war among chief-ministerial candidates. Though, like all elections in Haryana,
this poll too boiled down to a ‘Jat versus non-jat’ battle, the
party did manage to make inroads into the Jat heartland, the prominent
wins being those of Jat leaders OP Dhankar, Capt Abhimanyu, and Prem
Lata, wife of senior Jat leader Birender Singh. The party managed to keep its flock together despite the
presence of half a dozen chief-ministerial candidates by deciding to
project none of them for the post. The brief to all of them was clear—to
win as many seats as they can, after which a call was to be taken.
This helped ensure every leader worked to win seats in his area rather
than focus on creating trouble for others. This strategising with
completely controlled and monitored by national BJP president Amit
Shah. — Geetanjali Gayatri
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DEVELOPMENT
Chief
Minister-designate Khattar, who himself is a native of Rohtak district
but represents in the Assembly the ‘non-Jat’ Karnal along the GT
Road, will have to correct the impression that successive chief
ministers of the state have catered only to their pocket boroughs, at
the cost of other districts. Besides, Khattar, the first non-Jat chief
minister in 18 years, will have the impossible job of addressing
conflicting aspirations of diverse areas and different sections of
society, especially the dominant Jat community, while undertaking
development. If the first ‘Punjabi’ chief minister also ends up
creating an impression that he is favouring any particular region or
community, it will have serious political implications for the BJP as
the party is still perceived by many as an urban non-Jat party. The
very fact that the Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) has inherent
advantages as compared to other regions of the state would also pose a
set of problems for the new chief minister. Developing the non-NCR
districts of the state on the pattern of the NCR districts could prove
to be the undoing of the government. On his part, the chief minister-designate has already promised corruption-free governance and all-round development in the state. Turning promises into deeds, however, has rarely been seen in Haryana politics. —
Pradeep Sharma
10 years of inequity
‘Will go by Modi’s
vision’
I want to assure people that the BJP
will develop the state as per Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision.
There will be no partiality on the development front in the state that
has faced regional discrimination in the past. There will be all-round
development of Haryana now, whether it is the southern or northern
districts. Manohar Lal Khattar, cm-designate
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Did Dera make a difference? Depends on who’s explaining
Hours
before the polling in Haryana
Dera Sacha Sauda of Sirsa announced its support to the BJP. Its
spiritual head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and his family ensured that
their casting of votes was well publicised. The Congress in its
post-poll analysis has blamed the Dera support to the BJP as a major
factor for the party “being deprived a third term in office”.
Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leaders say the Dera extended support to the BJP because there were clear signals that the INLD was headed to form the next government. Since the 2007 elections in neighbouring Punjab, the ruling SAD there (an ally of the INLD in Haryana) has been at odds with the Dera. The Dera thus feared the INLD coming to power. Though the INLD and the Dera had earlier been on cordial terms, INLD leaders had threatened the Dera chief at the behest of the Akalis in 2007. There is division in opinion on the extent to which the Dera decision helped the BJP. One thought is that the Dera, with 45 followers who are voters, had a major impact. The other contention is that the Dera did not follow any dictate and voted as they willed. Those who believe the Dera made a difference argue that an estimated 18 lakh votes (though unsubstantiated) went to the BJP. Out of the total 1.62 crore voters in Haryana 1.23 crore cast their vote (76.5 per cent). The claimed 18 lakh BJP votes of Dera supporters would mean 14.5 per cent. The BJP secured 33.2 per cent votes in all, the INLD 24.1 per cent and the Congress 20.4. Thus, had the Dera vote not gone to the BJP, the party would have been at the third place with 18.7 per cent votes. Even if these 18 lakh votes were equally divided between the three main parties, the state would have seen a hung Assembly, with almost an equal number of seats for each party. But this did not happen, so they say the Dera did make the crucial difference. However,
there is an equally valid counter-argument. It is that the BJP was
ahead even in the April 2014 parliamentary elections on 52 seats, when
there was no support from the Dera. Winning 47 seats after support
from the Dera for the BJP is a loss of five seats. Had the Dera
support actually mattered the BJP would not have fared so badly in the
Sirsa-Fatehbad-Hisar belt, where the Dera has huge support. In Sirsa,
where the Dera has its headquarters, the BJP candidate stood third,
behind the INLD and the Haryana Lokhit Party’s Gopal Kanda. This
could be possible only if the Dera supported INLD in Sirsa and the BJP
in the rest of the state. But there was no such announcement, at least
not openly. There is another argument. In April 2014 the BJP lost
Rohtak and its alliance partner HJC both Sirsa and Hisar. The pattern
of voting remained unchanged this time. Thus the BJP’s success was
unnecessarily being attributed to the Dera factor. The INLD has simply
repeated its performance. Had the Dera vote really mattered the BJP
should have done much better in these districts. Whether or not the
Dera had an effect, it has provided an explanation to both Congress
and the INLD for their loss. — Naveen S Garewal
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FINANCES
The
Khattar government will have to
be prepared for a financial tightrope walk if it means to keep the
promises made by the BJP to various sections of society, including the
2.5 lakh state government employees.
With the state’s debt
zooming past Rs 81,000 crore, the promise of ‘achhe din’ for the
common man will come at a price for the government, which runs the
risk of running into a debt trap. As revenue receipts failed to keep pace with the ever-increasing expenditure during the decade of Hooda government, it was a classic case of financial mismanagement. The Congress had come to power promising to make Haryana a revenue-surplus state. That proved to be pipedream. The present revenue deficit is pegged at over Rs 5,000 crore, with the outgoing government contending that the state would have been revenue surplus years back if the Central government had released its share of over Rs 7,000 crore in Central Sales Tax (CST). The
effects of the global slowdown started showing on the state’s
economy in recent years with foreign direct investments (FDI) being
adversely affected. Over the past couple of years no major project has
come to the state, with certain committed investments also not
arriving. What to talk of foreign investors, even domestic investors
have been wary investing in Haryana on account of law and order
issues, labour trouble and red tape. Another worrying point for the new government is the fact a majority of the major projects are concentrated in the National Capital Region (NCR), which has led to inequitable distribution of income in the state. This,
coupled with Hooda’s ‘sop opera’ during the November 10, 2013,
Gohana rally and August 24, 2014, Panipat rally, would put unbearable
strain on the state’s financial health, i.e., if the BJP government
decides to honour those. Keeping word While
the new government would have to spare huge resources to implement
even the poll promises made in the BJP manifesto, a major decision to
be taken would be whether it wants to implement for its staff the pay
scales of Punjab. Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had made
announced that Haryana would implement Punjab pattern pay scales for
the Haryana staff from November 1, 2014. This is likely to put the
incoming BJP government in a quandary. The silver lining for the BJP government in the state is that the party is in power at the Centre also. They should thus be able to work in coordination for the development of the state. Khattar also has a rapport with Prime Minister Modi, which could facilitate the flow of funds for the state, according to sources in the BJP. Hints
to this effect were dropped by Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister
Venkaiah Naidu, who as central observer recently attended a meeting of
party MLAs in Chandigarh, at which Khattar was chosen chief minister.
“We will work shoulder-to-shoulder with the government in Haryana to
put the state on the path to progress,” Naidu had said. —
Pradeep Sharma
Debt, past and future
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BJP manifesto
If
the “vision plan” of the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is anything go by, the newly elected
Haryana government has an answer for all ills — poverty,
unemployment, lack of quality education, slow growth of economy and
more.
In its woo-all manifesto, the BJP has set itself a tall order
and raised public expectations, though it’s going to be anything but
easy for a government that has “inherited” several fund-draining
decisions of the previous incumbents, including old-age and disability
pension increase from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 per month, and pay scales
and pensions for employees on the pattern of Punjab from November 1. Boosting
the agro economy of the state is among the party’s major promises.
The task in this is cut out: a new Green Revolution, a water
revolution and a milk revolution at the macro level to raise
agricultural production; ensure supply in the Hansi-Bhutana and SYL
canals to serve south Haryana; and profitably tap the dairy produce of
the milk-surplus state. At the micro level, the party has promised uplift of all have-nots by increasing the old-age and disability pension to Rs 2,000 per month, and providing food grain at Re 1 per kg to the 13 lakh BPL beneficiaries in the state and raising the minimum wage to Rs 300 per day. Besides, the BJP has promised Rs 6,000 and Rs 9000 a month to the educated unemployed youth of the state who have completed their Class XII and graduation, respectively, for 100 hours of part-time work, or in lieu of work. The party has also promised loans of Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore to unemployed youth looking to set up businesses, or a subsidy of Rs 3 lakh on government guarantee. For students While
promising laptops to “brilliant” students of Class X and Class
XII, the BJP has also committed itself to holding elections in
colleges and universities, for which there has been a demand from
various students’ bodies. A special provision in the budget for
raising the standard of primary education and implementation of the
earn-while-you-learn scheme, and free bus service for students is also
on the party’s agenda. A Guru Gobind Singh university in Panchkula
or Ambala, and two new medical institutions on the lines of AIIMS,
Delhi, are also among the promises. Employees The party manifesto pledges to regularising daily-wagers, contract employees and ad-hoc employees of Haryana. While the Hooda government had cleared several amendments in rules to regularise contractual employees, it remains to be seen how the new government goes about regularising the services of those left uncovered. Doubling of education allowance for wards of employees, 50 per cent funding of leave travel concession (LTC) once in seven years for retired employees, and constitution of a board for recruitment of home guards are among the other promises the government will have to deliver on. Others The manifesto also promises round-the-clock power and water supply, connecting villages to main roads, four-laning of highways, soil cards for farmers, setting up of a calamity relief authority to deal with damage to crops on account of drought, flood, hail or frost. For the senior citizens, the BJP has promised a scheme for free pilgrimage. However,
sources in the government say doing all that it has promised may turn
out to be impossible for the new government, which will be weighed
down by the additional burden of the commitments made by the outgoing
Congress government also. The state’s resources are already
stretched. — Geetanjali Gayatri
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Semi-separatists like Sajjad Gani Lone of the Peoples Conference, who took part in the 2009 and 2014 parliamentary elections, are another group being wooed by the BJP.
The PDP appears stronger than other parties in the Valley, which contributes 46 of the total 87 seats in the Assembly. The victory in the parliamentary polls is an advantage. The party won all three seats in the Valley. The surprise was the defeat of NC president and three-time chief minister Farooq Abdullah from Srinagar. Tariq Hamid Karra became the giant-killer.
The party has ruled the state for most of years since 1975. Barring the 2002-2008 period and that of Central rule from January 1990 to October 1996, the NC has been ruling the state either on its own or in alliance with the Congress.
It is a leaderless party in J&K, banking solely on the Modi wave that propelled it to the top position in Jammu and Ladakh regions. It is eyeing 44-plus seats, banking on the the work done by the RSS cadre during the floods and the visits of Central ministers.
Over the decades, the Congress has played a crucial role in shaping the politics of Kashmir. It had donned the role of kingmaker after the 2002 polls and it continued even in 2008. It still hopes to be in that position, but the road ahead is tough.
Women’s status: The state has traditionally been unfair to its women. Scoring poorly on the social indices, the sorry state of affairs begins and ends with the plight of the girl child and women. Girls are discouraged from studying and women are weighed down by social, cultural norms.
Besides the Modi wave,
the party’s success also came from the dovetailing of various other
factors, the foremost being the consolidation of the non-Jat vote
bank. The party labelled as that of “upper castes and traders”
managed to consolidate the non-Jat vote bank and along take in Dalits
and OBCs. The latter was evident in its success in the Ahir belt of
south Haryana, where the party gained substantially by winning all
eight seats in Gurgaon and Mahendergarh districts. Out of the 17
reserved seats, the party picked up nine, indicating a shift of Dalits
towards the saffron party.
The party’s ‘social
engineering’ to consolidate the non-Jats, fed up of Jat rule and
looking to establishing “their own” government, helped the BJP’s
cause. Another factor that worked in favour of the BJP was its
decision to say no to dynastic politics despite senior leaders and
sitting Members MPs wanting the ticket for their kin. The party stuck
with this decision of Prime Minister Modi even at the cost of causing
heartburn.
The
