Rohtak: Taking cue from 2019 poll, BJP sticking to caste equations again

Tribune News Service

Ravinder Saini

Rohtak, March 27

Despite changing its candidates on four of eight seats (general category), the BJP has tried to strike the same-caste equations, like it did in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The party has replaced winning candidates of previous elections on three of the four seats with the leaders of their own castes. It has fielded new faces in Hisar, Sonepat, Karnal and Kurukshetra. Except Kurukshetra, candidates belong to the same castes of those candidates who contested the 2019 poll on BJP ticket and were victorious.

Outgoing MP Sanjay Bhatia from Karnal has been replaced with former CM Manohar Lal Khattar. Both leaders belong to the Punjabi community while MLA from Rai, Mohan Lal Badoli, a Brahmin, has been nominated as BJP nominee from Sonepat in place of two-time MP Ramesh Kaushik. However, Kaushik defeated a former CM, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, in 2019.

MP Brijendra Singh’s resignation made the BJP field a new face from Hisar. Though former MP Kuldeep Bishnoi was also one of the strong contenders owing to the political base of his family in Hisar, the BJP opted for a seasoned politician and Jat leader Ranjit

Singh Chautala.

The name of another Jat leader and former minister Capt Abhimanyu was also doing the rounds, as he had served as MLA from Narnaund segment of the Hisar parliamentary constituency from 2014 to 2019. He also contested the Assembly poll from there in 2019, but could not succeed. Yet, he remained active in the region.

“The party was contemplating to field either Nayab Singh Saini again or any other leader of the Saini community from Kurukshetra before he was installed as CM two weeks ago. But changing of guard in the state made former MP Naveen Jindal an obvious choice for the party as the AAP, in alliance with the Congress, had also fielded Sushil Gupta hailing from the trader community from Kurukshetra,” claimed Ashok Khurana, a member of the BJP state executive.

He said since the BJP succeeded in clinching all 10 seats in the 2019 poll by striking a new caste equation, it preferred to go ahead with the same strategy. “Fielding Brahmin candidates from Jat-dominated Rohtak and Sonepat seats in 2019 was a new experiment that worked, so the party has no hesitation in giving these seats again to the Brahmins. However, names of actor Randeep Hooda and Baba Mastnath Math’s mahant Baba Balak Nath were also discussed for Rohtak,” Khurana added.

Mantra helped clinch all 10 seats

Since the party succeeded in clinching all 10 seats in the 2019 elections by striking a new caste equation, it preferred to go ahead with the same strategy

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