Jind bypoll a litmus test for all parties

Deepender Deswal

The byelection in Jind, Jat heartland of Haryana that is known as a barometer of Haryana politics, is perhaps the last thing the BJP, Congress and the INLD would have wanted when the Assembly and parliamentary elections are due next year.

However, following INLD legislator Hari Chand Middha’s death on August 26, the byelection is imminent to fill the Assembly seat vacancy before February next year. It is expected  that the Election Commission will hold the bypoll next month or January next year.

Besides being a litmus test for the parties, the bypoll also has at stake the prestige of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Union Minister for Steel Birender Singh, feuding INLD leaders Abhay Chautala and his nephew Dushyant Chautala as well as two factions of the Congress led by former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and HPCC president Ashok Tanwar.

The government, which claims to have provided clean governance in the state, will get to know the mood of the people ahead of the Assembly elections. Obviously, it will make all efforts to win the bypoll.

The Chief Minister has taken the charge of the Jind byelection in his hands and lured Krishan Middha, son of former MLA, into the party fold. He announced several development works for Jind on the basis of the demands of Hari Chand Middha, which the late leader was to take up in the monsoon session. The fact that Jind is an urban and Punjabi community-dominated seat too goes in favour of the BJP, which is known as an urban centric non-Jat party.

“Losing the bypoll at this stage will be a bad omen for the BJP government. The defeat in Jind will send warning signals to the government for the next Assembly elections,” says political expert Pawan Kumar Bansal.

The faction-ridden Congress, too, faces a tough task to keep itself in the reckoning. While Ashok Tanwar, who has been the HPCC president for over four years, had got the ticket for his loyalist Pramod Sahwag in the last Assembly elections, the latter failed to put up a fight. Sources say that two-time MLA late Brij Mohan Singla's son Anshul Singla is in touch with Hooda and will try for the Congress ticket. “Given severe factionalism in the Congress, it's unlikely that they will put up a united fight. Differences will come out in the open once the party announces the ticket,” says Bansal.

It’s also a litmus test for the INLD, which not only will fight to retain the seat but also to decide the feud between Chautala’s scions for supremacy in the party. With growing rift between Abhay Chautala and his nephew, it can be a show of strength between them ahead of the Assembly elections. In view of the preparations made for the November 17 meeting in Jind by Dushyant, his father Ajay Chautala, mother Naina Chautala and brother Digvijay Chautala, it is likely that they will field their own candidate. Dushyant has been more active than his uncle Abhay in Jind for the last couple of years.  

Praveen Atre, INLD spokesperson, says that the INLD cadres stand strongly behind the party supremo, Om Prakash Chautala. “It will not be easy for the rebels in the party to fight the byelection in Jind. If they do, it will make little difference to the party’s prospects,” he adds. Atre, however, says that the party is always ready for the election and it’s the BJP that is afraid of the byelection.

BJP’s rebel MP Rajkumar Saini can also be a factor in the byelection, as he has announced to launch his own party ahead of the Assembly elections in Haryana. Bansal says that Saini can sway a significant number of non-Jat votes due to his consistent stand of opposing Jat politics in Haryana.

Historically, Jind is known for setting the political narrative in Haryana. Lok Dal leader Devi Lal launched Nyaya Yudh in 1986 from Jind to oppose the Rajiv-Longowal accord of 1985 on the plank that it compromised the interests of Haryana. He stormed to power by winning 85 of 90 seats in 1987.

Again, Bansi Lal, who formed the Haryana Vikas Party (HVP) after defecting from the Congress, started a campaign by holding a massive rally in Jind in 1995 against alleged corruption in the Bhajan Lal government. The HVP, in alliance with the BJP, formed the government in 1996.

Similarly, Hooda started Kisan Padyatra from Jind in 2002 after a violent clash at Kandela in Jind between the Chautala government and farmers over power bills. Hooda, too, emerged stronger and became Chief Minister in 2005.