The Tribune Interview: Third term no miracle, teamwork, sound planning saw us through

Refusing to buy the theory that the BJP has pulled off a “miracle” in Haryana by winning the third term, party incharge Satish Poonia emphasised that the victory was the outcome of concerted hard work, good strategy and a top-notch management at all levels.

Our only suggestion to the Chief Minister and his Cabinet is that the public has given a huge mandate and reposed a lot of faith in the BJP. That should be respected and the sankalp patra, our vision document, should be implemented.

Stating that elections were about a social engineering of sorts, Poonia, in an interview to Geetanjali Gayatri of The Tribune for its digital show ‘#DecodeHaryana’ in Chandigarh on Friday, said the BJP worked to a plan while the Congress lost the plot to over-confidence, infighting and overreliance on former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

“The BJP’s win was certainly not a miracle. A team of eight leaders, including Dharmendra Pradhan, Biplab Deb, Surinder Nagar, Nayab Singh Saini, Manohar Lal Khattar and I, as also the sangathan mantris, worked as ‘Team Haryana’ very closely to orchestrate a win. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the BJP president JP Nadda wanted us to work to take the policies of the government to the people. We did only that,” he said.

Giving all credit to teamwork for a hat-trick by the BJP in the state, Poonia said he was ecstatic that he is a part of the “winning team”. “No one person can take credit for this victory since it is all about teamwork. Today, I feel the same happiness that the cricketers feel on winning the world cup,” he remarked.

Disclosing that the BJP started working on the field right after the Lok Sabha poll results, Poonia said, “When everybody was saying that the BJP had lost five of the 10 seats, I was saying that we had won five seats. Despite the odds stacked against us and in spite of the narrative built against us involving the farmers, sportspersons and soldiers and the 10 years of anti-incumbency, we analysed the results and saw we had led in 44 Assembly seats during the Lok Sabha elections. That is when the foundation of this win was laid as we got down to ground work in Haryana.”

He said the BJP, in its three tenures, had shattered three myths — first, the party never being able to form a government on its own, second, of not winning the second time, and finally, the third win was impossible. “All castes voted for us. There was no ‘biradriwad’ and the farmers, too, supported us, evident in the seats we won in Sonepat, Charkhi Dadri and Bhiwani,” he claimed.

Dissecting the reasons for the Congress’ loss, Poonia said, “The Congress handed everything from tickets to campaigning to former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, upsetting the supporters of Sirsa MP Selja. Then, the party was over-confident and relied on its so-called vote bank which does not exist. We, instead, worked on the ground to build a strong foundation and managed 95 per cent of our revolt after ticket-distribution which the Congress failed to do,” he said.

He said CM Saini had a “good team” which represented the different geographical and social sections. “Our only suggestion to the CM and his Cabinet is that the public has given a huge mandate and reposed a lot of faith in the BJP. That should be respected and the sankalp patra, our vision document, should be implemented. Some serious deliberations have already taken place on this,” the BJP incharge said.