BJP, Congress locked in a tight contest

It’s dead heat in Haryana elections. Both the BJP and the Congress are engaged in a neck and neck contest on most of the seats in the state. Taking no chances, the Congress has given tickets to many of its heavyweights. With Bhupinder Singh Hooda contesting as a Congress candidate from Sonepat, the Congress has upped the ante. The BJP is hoping to repeat its 2014 performance, which will not be easy for want of a visible wave. A good performance in the elections by any party will be a big booster for the Assembly elections six months later.     

Both the Congress and the BJP are emerging as main players as far as parliamentary elections are concerned in the state. The ruling BJP is banking on the polarisation of votes on the caste lines and hoping to get a major share of non-Jat votes. The Congress has played its bet on old war horse Bhupinder Singh Hooda who is the tallest Jat leader in Haryana at present.

With the Congress giving ticket to Mr Hooda from the Sonipat constituency, the party has given a signal that it is going aggressive and has pulled no punches in the state. Sonipat parliamentary constituency is a Jat-dominated seat, even though BJP's Ramesh Chander Kaushik, a brahmin represents the seat at present.   

Taking an aggressive stance to woo the voters, former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said his election as MP will pave the way to chief ministership.

"I was elected MP from Rohtak in 2004 when the party picked me to head the Congress government after the 2005 Assembly elections. The conditions are similar this time as the Vidhan Sabha elections are to be held in the next six months," Mr Hooda said.

Realising the value of a good performance in parliamentary elections, the Congress had put its best foot forward and given tickets to its strong leaders like Kumari Selja from Ambala constituency, Shruti Chaudhary (granddaughter of Bansi Lal) from Bhiwani-Mahendergarh constituency, Deepender Singh Hooda from Rohtak and Ashok Tanwar from Sirsa.

The BJP not finding any wave like in 2014 is mainly depending on the split in the Jat votes and consolidation of non-Jat votes in its favour.

The BJP insiders feel that the Congress, INLD and JJP-AAP are all mainly fighting the thirty per cent Jat votes in the state. Therefore, the BJP is going to be the obvious choice of the non-Jat voters in the state.

However, as the INLD and JJP have gone through recent split, the political observers opine that the Jat voters would choose Congress. In this scenario, they feel that parliamentary elections are wide open and would go right down to the wire.

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