Political temperature starts soaring in Haryana as parties line-up programmes

Along with the summer temperature, politics in Haryana too has started soaring. With the wheat harvest over and barely a year to go for both the Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections, key political parties have started shifting gears. Their leaderships are announcing political programmes one after the other.

After the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) drew first blood recently by announcing a pre poll alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the remaining two political forces – the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress too have made their political moves by initiating programmes. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which has been a rank outsider till now is also making noises aiming to draw its pound of flesh in the forthcoming electoral battle.

The Congress has been the most active in the state albeit in a divided manner. This remains the key concern for its supporters who have been pointing out that the people at this point of time are in favour of the Congress but the divided leadership may squander away the window of opportunity that has emerged.

Former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda who remains the most powerful Congress leader in the state has announced a 'Jan Kranti Yatra' from Panipat 3 June onwards. He plans to cover every constituency under this Yatra in the days to come, raising issues pertaining to farmers, poor, labourers and the youth. He had earlier decided to start this Yatra in February but had to postpone it following a fracture that he had sustained immediately after its launch from Hodal.

Hooda has been gunning for both the ruling BJP government under Manohar Lal Khattar as well as the INLD leadership. Responding to the INLD-BSP pre poll pact he said, “The pact will break before the polls like it had in 1998. What can one say about the INLD that has been entering into pacts with BJP, BSP and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) one after the other.”

He has been scathing in his attacks on the BJP questioning the performance of the government both in the state as well as in the centre on issues like job generation, addressing concerns of the farmers, repeated failures on the law and order front and its reliance on caste and communal polarisation for electoral benefits.

Meanwhile, the state Congress chief Ashok Tanwar who heads another Congress faction has also announced his programmes that include a Dalit Mahasammelan at Karnal on May 27. It needs to be pointed that Karnal is the home turf of Khattar and Tanwar wants to score brownie points by holding the event there. Karnal and its adjoining areas have been in the news for instances of Dalit atrocities. 

It is a two-pronged attack that Tanwar plans to launch in the state. While taking on the Khattar regime at the chief minister's home turf on issues pertaining to Dalits, he has also announced to undertake the second leg of his Cycle Yatra in Sirsa district which happens to be the stronghold of the INLD.

This leg of the Yatra will be carried out from May 17-21 mainly covering Sirsa district that is spread over one tenth of Haryana's geographical area and is the biggest district in the state. The Yatra will also pass through Chautala village which is the home of Chautala family that is at the top of the INLD hierarchy. These initiatives will later be carried out in other districts as well in the days to come. Tanwar intends to raise issues like farm distress and demand for loan waiver, the Staff Selection Commission scam that rocked thee state recently and the effort of the government to cover up various scams including the activities of the mining mafia in the river beds and in areas adjoining the Aravalli mountain range.

“We will also be taking up issues of the continuing atrocities against the officials from both the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes that have been coming to light. It has come to light that officials from these communities are not being given important posts,” he said.

Not to be left behind, the BJP with Khattar as its government head is also shifting gears. Khattar has started holding road shows in various parts of the state. He has started camping in villages overnight chairing 'Gram Chaupals', breaking bread in Dalit households and promoting schemes launched by his government among the masses. He recently held two such programmes in Yamunanagar and Karnal districts. He has started showcasing the achievements of his government while conveying to the people that there is no paucity of funds in Haryana for development. He plans to soon enter the districts in the Jat heartland that are the stronghold of the Congress and the INLD. He has been interacting with rural masses to check the ground realities of the schemes launched under the ‘Gram Swaraj Abhiyan’.

The ruling BJP has also reportedly drawn a road map to carry out party programmes across the state in the next two months. These are aimed at reaching out to the people and apprising them of the government programmes and achievements in the last four years. 

The INLD-BSP combine have launched a 'Jail Bharo' agitation from 1 May with main focus on the the emotive issue of completion of the Satluj Yamuna Link (SYL) canal on which it is targeting both the Congress and the BJP. It is also playing up the issue of water scarcity and the failures of the recent Congress and the present BJP regimes of addressing it. Its leaders have been saying that the Government of India which has been directed by the Supreme Court to complete the construction of the SYL canal has been sitting over the directive even after the final disposal of the dispute for the past eighteen months. They have been accusing the centre and the state government of conspiring against the interests of Haryana.

Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Abhay Singh Chautala has stated that the central and the state governments do not seem to realise that Haryana is staring at a man-made disaster by delaying the legitimate share to it from the river waters. He reminded that even at this moment south Haryana has slipped into ‘dark zone’ in context of groundwater. “Much of the development in that region was undertaken because of the belief that the water needs of the region, both agricultural and residential, would be adequately met with the waters from rivers through SYL canal when it would reach these areas. Now that it appears that the BJP, both in New Delhi and the state, is insensitive to the needs of the people of the state, it appears that this region is on the brink of becoming barren,” he said.

Even AAP is gearing to make its presence felt on the political map of the state. After an impressive rally and road show of party's national convener and Delhi chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal a few weeks ago, the party is in the process of formalizing an organisational structure in the state. The party's state chief Naveen Jaihind has stated that the party leadership will be traveling across all the 90 constituencies soon. The party has also started the process of shortlisting potential candidates.

It is just a matter of time before campaign picks up in this state that is known for its sharp politics across India.