Compared to its recent losses in the three Hindi heartland States, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s win in the mayoral elections in five cities that went to polls in Haryana, would appear nearly insignificant. But it’s not, for various reasons besides the fact that it comes as a morale-booster, even if in a small dose, for the party.
This was the first time that mayoral elections were held directly, where the voters and not the corporators elected the mayors. The BJP won in all — Karnal, Rohtak, Hisar, Panipat and Yamunanagar. The BJP contested the polls on the party symbol, while the Congress chose to back independent candidates and not put its hat directly into the ring. This says something for the ruling party’s confidence and the reluctance of the Congress to directly take on the BJP.
The BJP’s wins in Rohtak and Hisar is especially significant because these two cities are considered the stronghold of senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. In fact, even in the midst of the Modi wave in 2014, the former Chief Minister’s son, Deepender Hooda, had managed to retain the Rohtak Lok Sabha seat. The BJP’s victory is an embarrassment to the senior Hooda who aspires to make a comeback. As it is, his path to revival is paved with thorns, as issues regarding irregularities in land deals during his tenure, favouring Robert Vadra, are being probed by agencies.
Unable to explain the loss of candidates his party backed and unwilling to acknowledge that the BJP had a better connect with the urban voters, Hooda fell back on the expected — holding the EVMs responsible for the outcome. He claimed that the VVPAT system had been in-operational and that the EVM use had not been rehearsed and demonstrated to the people before actual use. Such lame excuses cannot take away from the reality of the defeat.
If Hooda is upset, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar is expectedly jubilant. He has faced flak on repeated occasions for ‘mis-governance’, and for his poor handling of law and order. Some of his remarks on sensitive issue have resulted in major controversies. There has been talk that the BJP had erred majorly in choosing Khattar as the Chief Minister. The mayoral victories should bring relief to the beleaguered leader. He put his prestige at stake in the mayoral polls, campaigning hard, especially in the last days of voting. It is not often that the Chief Minister of a State invests so much personally in an urban body poll. Now that it has paid off, he can be satisfied about being one-up on his rival, Hooda.
The BJP used a few factors to its advantage. It made it known that the Congress had run scared of a direct face-off, thus creating a perception of its rival having conceded defeat before a single vote was polled. It made full use of Khattar’s Punjabi connection, and this worked because a large chunk of voters in these five cities was Punjabi-speaking. The BJP also played upon the advantage of a vote-split in the opposition camp; the recent fragmentation of the Indian National Lok Dal had divided its core voters — the Jats —and resulted in gains for the BJP. Even tentative opposition alliances failed to work. The Abhay Chautala faction had aligned with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) but the combine could not succeed. Taken holistically, the entire non-BJP groups contested against the BJP, and yet could not win. Had they fought separately and on their respective party symbols, the situation could have been even worse for them.
And yet, the BJP cannot celebrate this victory as a precursor to the Lok Sabha election outcome. There is much that needs to be fixed in the coming months, and the Khattar regime has a perception issue to tackle as well. Besides, it must not be forgotten that while the BJP may have won the mayoral contests, it failed to win a majority of the corporation wards in both Hisar and Rohtak, the Congress’s backyard. The challenge for Khattar and the BJP is as intense as it was before at the State-level.
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