Simply Haryana: Gopal Kanda finds himself on sticky wicket after triggering political storm

it had all the trappings of a storm and every party was drawn into Sirsa’s political swirl. However, it ended as quickly as it began and, only, as a storm in a teacup. The trigger came from the Indian National Lok Dal’s Abhay Chautala who termed his party’s alliance with Gopal Kanda’s Haryana Lokhit Party (HLP) in the 2024 Assembly election “a mistake”.

The former minister, Kanda, took time to respond, weighing his words and taking a dig at the INLD to underline that the latter won the Rania seat (held by Chautala’s son, Arjun) because of the HLP’s support at Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s behest.

Kanda said, “Senior leader Manohar Lal Khattar asked us to help the INLD win the seat to prevent Congress from taking it. We supported the INLD only at his request,” Kanda had said, his statement sparking a widespread discussion.

While this has certainly not gone down well with the INLD, the BJP, too, is not amused. Responding to Kanda’s remarks, Khattar, in Panipat last week, said, “Everyone should stay grounded, and not walk on air. Everyone knows what happened at the local level there. It’s true that our party had an understanding with Kanda’s party and left the Sirsa seat for him. But he didn’t win from there, and we had no role in that.”

The BJP had, in the Assembly elections fought in September, contested 89 of 90 seats. The party had decided not to field any candidate against Kanda, leaving that seat for him to contest.

Even as Kanda seems to have rubbed the BJP the wrong way and is trying to salvage the situation by stating that he only meant that the BJP-HLP alliance helped Chautala. Sources close to him said what Kanda really meant to say was that his brother Gobind Kanda had contested from Rania in the past elections and come second at a time when former minister Ranjit Chautala was placed third. “This time, the HLP wanted to field Govind Kanda’s son, Dhawal. However, he did not contest the election which, in turn benefitted the INLD,” the aide said.

Prominent leaders Rohtak MP Deepender Hooda and INLD leader Abhay Singh Chautala, added fuel to fire as they jumped in and made it a one-upmanship battle on the Sirsa turf which is the Chautalas bastion that the Kandas try breaching and, sometimes, succeed.

Not one to take kindly to barbs thrown his way, Chautala gave a sharp rebuttal to Kanda’s remarks, dismissing them entirely. “Everyone knows who Gopal Kanda really is. I don’t need to explain. He has no ideology — he’s an opportunist. He was once with us, then with the Congress, and now he wants to ally with the BJP.”

He further alleged that the Congress and the BJP were working together to mislead the public. Jumping onto the bandwagon, Congress MP from Rohtak Deepender Hooda called Kanda’s statement an exposure of a long-hidden alliance. “This proves there was a secret deal between BJP and INLD. They pretended to oppose each other in Rania, Dabwali and Ellenabad, but were working together behind the scenes. Their past deals have betrayed every section of society,” said Deepender.

In the 90-member Vidhan Sabha, while it is very clear that the BJP is the A team, ambiguity continues around the BJP’s “B team” in the state as the Opposition parties trade charges. The monsoon session of the House will bring a fresh round of charges and counter charges between the two Opposition parties, the Congress and the INLD, since this issue will be raked up. The BJP will sit pretty in the treasury benches, watching the “B team” contest. In the end, it will be much ado about nothing, just the way this controversy fizzled out sooner than it began.