Test of Modi magic, Shah’s strategy

The Haryana Assembly election results are expected to serve as a litmus test for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity and Home Minister Amit Shah’s political manoeuvring, the two leaders having been credited with the BJP’s two consecutive victories in the state, located next to the national capital.

The prestige of three central ministers from Haryana — Manohar Lal Khattar, Rao Inderjit and Krishan Pal Gurjar — and caretaker Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, among others, will also be at stake.

Shah, considered to be the BJP’s chief strategist, is learnt to have micro-managed the campaign through his trusted leaders in close coordination with RSS functionaries. “Modi magic and Shah’s strategy will be at test as the BJP is facing 10-year anti-incumbency,” a senior party leader told The Tribune. The leader said the Haryana elections were fought on three main issues of ‘kisan’, jawan and ‘pehalwan’ (farmers, soldiers and wrestlers), all falling under the Centre’s jurisdiction. “The Haryana results are crucial for the BJP as these will have a pan-India impact and set the tone for the Assembly elections in Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Delhi,” the leader asserted.

All tricks of the trade, including micro-managing booths through ‘panna pramukhs’, release of rape convict Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim before the elections and announcement of various sops to woo the voters, were adopted to retain power in Haryana, the only state north of Delhi where the BJP was in power, said an analyst.

Moreover, the Haryana poll is the first electoral exercise after the recent General Election, the outcome of which resulted in the BJP’s reduced influence nationally. Even in Haryana, its tally halved to five seats in 2024 from 10 in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.