Ahead of Assembly poll, BJP plays OBC card

Ravinder Saini

Rohtak, June 9

The BJP has played the OBC card by inducting its two MPs belonging to this category to Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government’s Council of Ministers ahead of the Assembly poll that is due in October.

The elevation of Gurugram MP Rao Inderjit and Faridabad MP Krishan Pal Gurjar is believed to be an effort to woo OBC voters in the Assembly election as well because the reins of Haryana are already in the hands of another OBC leader, Nayab Singh Saini, who was appointed Chief Minister in place of Manohar Lal Khattar in March before the Lok Sabha poll.

“Although Rao and Gurjar have been ministers in the previous Council of Ministers of the Modi government, giving them berths this time — since the Chief Minister is also from OBC class — undoubtedly is part of the BJP’s strategy to focus on OBC electors. It is a bid to gain political mileage in upcoming Assembly poll as the party managed to get a considerable chunk of the OBC vote bank in the Lok Sabha elections,” said a political analyst.

Interestingly, only two MPs from OBC have been elected from the state in this Lok Sabha poll. Both of them are from the BJP and have been included in the Council of Minister.

Out of 10 elected MPs in Haryana, three are Jats, two are OBC, one each belongs to Brahmin, Punjabi and business community while the remaining two are SCs.

On the other hand, supporters of Bhiwani-Mahendragarh MP Dharambir Singh are disappointed after not finding the name of their leader in the list of Central government’s ministers. Dharambir made a hat-trick in the Lok Sabha poll by defeating Congress’ nominee Rao Dan Singh.

“This time, we were quite confident about a ministerial berth for our leader. The BJP could have appeased people of farming communities ahead of the Assembly poll by elevating him as minister, but we became disappointed on coming to know that he was not being inducted in Modi Council of Ministers,” said one of Dharambir’s supporters.