Strategic Rural Outreach, Anti-Dalit Narrative & Corruption Charges Fuel BJP’s Show In Haryana

New Delhi: As Haryana Assembly election vote count is underway, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is ahead in 51 seats, while the Congress and its allies are leading in 32 seats, indicating BJP’s victory. A BJP win would make the party form its government for a record three consecutive terms in the state, a feat never achieved by any party before. 

Analysts attribute BJP’s success in Haryana to a well-crafted strategy that helped it beat the anti-incumbency. As part of this strategy, the BJP strengthened its rural outreach by deploying 150 party workers in each of the 45 Assembly constituencies where the Congress were ahead in the last Lok Sabha elections. It tried consolidating its grassroots connection with the RSS and BJP workers and sympathisers. 

Another key strategy was to highlight Congress’s anti-Dalit stance, which came into focus after the party’s decision not to give a ticket to Selja Kumari, a senior congress leader who wanted to contest the Assembly elections. Her followers and sympathisers were also denied party tickets. At least, the BJP pushed this narrative, stating that this reflected Congress’ anti-Dalit stance. 

The third factor that worked in its favour in Haryana was the BJP’s attack on the previous Bhupinder Singh Hooda government on corruption charges. The BJP attacked the party saying under the Congress government, jobs were given only based on bribes (kharchi) and political recommendations (parchi). The kharchi-parchi became a rallying point for youth and unemployed voters.