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In poll-bound Haryana, BJP to base campaign on drive against graft
In Haryana, the BJP focuses on anti-corruption and law enforcement in the election campaign, contrasting its achievements with the Congress's failures
In poll-bound Haryana the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in power in the state since 2014, will make the state government’s crackdown against crime and its drive against corruption the mainstay of the election campaign, borrowing a leaf from the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh. The campaign will also draw a comparison between the BJP’s decade-long performance of “good governance” and the “deficiencies and failures” of the Congress party when it was in power in the state, said functionaries aware of the details. The state will go to polls later this year to pick a new assembly.
The BJP wants to focus attention on the efforts to improve law and order in the state and the impact that anti-graft measures have had on enforcing transparency in allocation of contracts said the functionaries.
To be sure, the party has seen its strength in the 90-strong assembly shrink from 47 in 2014 to 40 in 2019; and while it won all 10 Lok Sabha seats in the state in 2014, it lost five in this summer’s election.
“Improvement in law and order was a key reason for the popularity of the state government in UP. In Haryana too, efforts were made to catch criminals and bring them to book. In recent months, there have been several arrests as well as encounters as part of the government’s policy of zero tolerance for crime,” said a party functionary aware of the details.
“There has been a considerable dip in instances of extortion and other crime. During the Congress rule, the business community in particular, used to be an easy target for gangs extorting money,” this person added.
Last week, Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, during a meeting with the police brass, is learnt to have directed officials to intensify their crackdown against gangs that are known for extortion.
The functionary quoted above, who is part of the state’s core group said, former CM Manohar Lal Khattar’s drive to end “parchi aur kharcha” (recommendation and money) for appointments has also been welcomed by people in the state. “In small towns and villages there is acknowledgement of the government’s efforts to end corruption. This practice of back-door entry for landing jobs was institutionalised during the (Congress’s Bhupender Singh) Hooda government,” the functionary said.
To be sure, the party had to replace Khattar with Saini in March and effect significant changes in the state cabinet, presumably to overcome anti-incumbency; its ally Dushayant Chautala’s Jananayak Janata Party (JJP) also broke up with it at the same time, causing some anxious moments for the government.
The Congress for its part has launched a campaign ‘Haryana Maange Hisab’ (Haryana seeks account) to target the BJP for issues such as rise in crime, unemployment, farmers’ distress and inflation.
Responding to these, a second senior BJP functionary, who is also part of the core team, said, the Congress is trying to “sweep its own failures under the carpet.”
“They talk of farm distress, how is itthat farmers from opposition-ruled Punjab were coming to sell their produce in mandis in Haryana? The state pays the highest remuneration to farmers, and over the years we have had to tighten the procedures for buying paddy and wheat to prevent losses as the state realised that there was a mismatch between produce (in the state) and what was purchased by the government,” said the second functionary.
The BJP is also prepared to counter the Congress’ plans to stir Jat sentiment by raising the issue of reservation and freebies. “In Karnataka they announced sops such as free bus travel for women and went on to increase fares for men and the power tariff, thereby burdening the families. The Congress is conning people by promising freebies. As for Jat reservation, what did (Bhupender Singh) Hooda about it when he was CM?” the second functionary said, adding a campaign to highlight the failures of the Hooda administration will be rolled out.
This is not the first time that the party has decided to focus equal attention on its own “achievements” and the “failures” of the opponent. The template has been borrowed from its campaign in Rajasthan, Telangana and Madhya Pradesh state polls.
The party has also trained its guns on the Hooda family, accusing it of running a “fiefdom”.
“There is no Congress party in the state, there is Hooda faction that dominates certain areas. And the family has effectively not allowed the party to grow or the leaders to flourish. Hooda now claims that if voted to power there will be deputy CMs from four castes, why didn’t he think of this when he was in power? Why was Kumari Selja, a Dalit leader not made CM? The public will demand answers,” the second functionary said.
