In Haryana, BJP banks on non-dominant castes
The BJP, facing resignations over ticket distribution in Haryana, aims to retain power by favoring non-dominant castes in its candidate selection.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has seen a spate of resignations over ticket distribution for the upcoming assembly polls in Haryana, is banking on a coalition of castes that are numerically not dominant to retain power in the state, an analysis of the caste of the candidates shows.
The party has announced the names of all the candidates for the state’s 90 member assembly.
Out of these, castes such as Brahmins, Rajputs and Punjabis – which are not numerically dominant and are counted as general category – have been given more than 50 tickets.
The largest community in the state are Jats, who make up roughly a third of the population, followed by Scheduled Castes, who make up for about 20% of the population.
Overall, the party has given 50 tickets to the general category, 20 to the other backward classes, and 17 to Scheduled Castes (the state has 17 reserved seats for SCs).
The party has also given tickets to two Muslims for the October 5 polls.
The BJP is hoping to win a third consecutive term in the upcoming polls while the Congress is hoping to ride on its momentum from the Lok Sabha elections to a rare assembly win.
As it did in 2014 and 2019, the party fielded more non-Jat candidates than the politically significant Jats, who are known to yield clout in the state and are considered as supporters of the Congress and the JJP. The overall number of Jats is 16 in the BJP list, fewer than 19 in 2019 and 24 in 2014.
The outreach towards non-dominant castes – OBCs and the general category – is an attempt to prevent numerically larger groups such as Jats and SCs from tilting the scale in favour of the Opposition, even as the party claims it has given “adequate representation” to candidates from across castes.
In the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls, the BJP failed to sweep the Lok Sabha elections in Haryana for the first time since 2014. The Congress and the BJP both won five seats, a result largely attributed to anger around the farm stir, the Agnipath scheme, the wrestlers’ protests against then lawmaker and Wrestling India Foundation chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who was accused of sexual harassment.
Since it came to power in the state a decade ago, the BJP has fostered non-Jat leadership in Haryana. It first appointed Manohar Lal Khattar, a Punjabi Khatri, as the chief minister, and replaced him earlier this year with Nayab Singh Saini, an OBC.
Party leaders said attempts were made to woo the Jats, who are traditionally not counted as BJP supporters, but the 2016 Jat quota stir, the protests over the now withdrawn three farm laws, and the stir against sexual harassment by top wrestlers exacerbated the strain in ties.
“The Jat reservation issue is still simmering… the Opposition, which did nothing to meet the demand when it was in power is now stoking the issue and making it a part of their election narrative,” said a party leader from the state, requesting anonymity.
The leader admitted that the “delay” in addressing the concerns of the wrestlers added to the community’s anger towards the BJP.
With the end of its alliance with the JJP, which held influence over the Jat community, the BJP’s strategy has been to consolidate its position among the numerically non-dominant castes, including OBCs and some “upper caste” groups.
Among the 20 OBC candidates are leaders from smaller backward groups such as Saini, Ahir, Gurjar and Kumhar. The party has fielded seven Ahirs, who are about 5.14% of the population; six Gurjars, who are about 3.35% and two Sainis, who are 2.9%.
Among the general category candidates are 12 Brahmins, and Punjabis in addition to five Baniyas, three Rajputs and one Jatt Sikh.
In 2019, the party had fielded nine Punjabis, eight Brahmins, and 18 from the Scheduled Castes. As per Census 2011, SCs are about 20% of the population.
There are 7% Muslims and about 5% Sikhs in the state.
“The BJP has fielded 17 members from SC castes, including four Valmikis and eight Jatavs. The ticket distribution was based on the winnability of the candidates in addition to ensuring representation to different castes. While identifying the candidates we ensured that different castes, irrespective of their numbers are given representation, take for example the Brahmins, who are not numerically a big group but have been given 11 seats, similarly the Ror community which is just about 1% of the population has been represented as well,” said a second leader, requesting anonymity.
In 2019, the BJP fell short of majority. This time the party is hopeful that it will be able to retain its vote share and emerge as the single-largest party.
“There is some resentment over ticket distribution, but the party will overcome the challenge. We have a good set of candidates, three are doctors, five are from the legal background and 20 have postgraduate degrees...we are also expecting a split in the SC vote,” said the first leader quoted above.
The party is hopeful that the Congress will not emerge as the biggest beneficiary of the SC vote, which it believes will be divided between the JJP-Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) alliance, and the Bahujan Samaj Party-Indian National Lok Dal alliance.