BJP to give ‘due representation’ to Jats

Pradeep Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 21

In a tweak in its election strategy for the upcoming October 1 Assembly elections in Haryana, the ruling BJP is warming up to its Jat leaders apparently in a bid to woo Jat voters. In the backdrop of the dominant Jat community forming around 25 per cent of the state’s electorate, the saffron party has decided to give ‘due representation’ to the Jat leaders in its various election-related decision-making committees.

The State Election Manifesto Committee is headed by prominent Jat leader Om Prakash Dhankar, a former BJP state chief and currently party’s national secretary. Besides Dhankar, two other prominent Jat leaders — Capt Abhimanyu and Kiran Chaudhry — also find a place in the crucial committee mandated to formulate the party’s manifesto in the run-up to the state elections. Earlier, the saffron party had included four Jat leaders in the 15-member State Election Committee while six community leaders found a place in the State Election Management Committee.

Getting caste equation right

• After OBC Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, Brahmin state BJP president Mohan Lal Badoli, the saffron party will give representation to Jats in decision-making bodies
• Kiran Chaudhry’s nomination to the Rajya Sabha is a part of the party’s new election strategy
• Change spurred by the party’s below-par performance in the LS elections; no Jat-non Jat narrative in the party, claim leaders

Last year, the BJP had replaced Jat leader Dhankar with the OBC face Nayab Singh Saini as the BJP chief. On March 13, 2024, Saini replaced Manohar Lal Khattar as the state Chief Minister. After Saini’s elevation as the Chief Minister, it was widely believed that a member of the Jat community would take as the state BJP chief. However, the BJP high command reposed faith in Brahmin face — Mohan Lal Badoli — as part of its social engineering formula ahead of the Assembly elections.

“In fact, by nominating Kiran Chaudhry to the Rajya Sabha from the state, the BJP has sent a clear signal to the influential Jat community that the saffron party want to take all 36 ‘biradaris’ along in the run-up to the Assembly polls,” a senior party leader said.

Sources said the below average performance of the BJP in the recently held Lok Sabha elections, in which it conceded five of the 10 seats to the Congress, had forced the party to re-work its strategy vis-à-vis the Jats in the run-up to the Assembly polls. More representation to the Jat leaders in the party’s decision-making committee besides Chaudhry’s nomination to the Rajya Sabha are part of the new strategy to woo the community in the polls, the sources said.

It is widely believed that the BJP is resorting to its social engineering formula of giving preference to non-Jat voters, comprising OBCs, Dalits, Brahmins and Banias, in a bid to form government for the third time in a row in Haryana. However, senior BJP leaders denied the allegations of Jat-non Jat narrative in the saffron party. “There is no place for caste politics in the BJP,” claimed Anil Vij, senior BJP leader and former Home and Health Minister.