Disarray in Oppn will help BJP get all seats: Haryana CM

New Delhi: Factionalism and infighting within the Opposition ranks is expected to help the BJP secure a majority of 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana, which goes to polls on May 12.

Speaking exclusively to this newspaper, Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar said that “nationalism and disarray in the Opposition will help BJP get all Lok Sabha seats”. Of course he did not forget to add “Modiji’s good governance” as the other “prime factor”.

“There is no one in competition in front of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. People believe Rahul Gandhi is very light-weight and who is Mayawati? If Mamata didi can manage to save her party in the state it will be a big thing. Chandrababu Naidu, despite being capable, is limited to a region and all of them together have not projected anyone. Modiji, on the other hand, has assured that the country’s reputation will rise in the world. Even in areas like space, we have attained great heights,” the Haryana chief minister said.

Pointing to the changing political dynamics in the state, the chief minister stated that people are fed up of caste politics and being treated as a vote bank. “We believe if the votes get divided, it will benefit our candidates.

But we also believe that these parties are looking at expanding their base and that is why they are going in for irrelevant coalitions. Take Jananayak Janata Party — it has partnered with Aam Aadmi Party which has no base in Haryana,” Mr Khattar said.  

“During INLD’s as well as the Congress’ rule, there was gundaraj and lath tantra (use of muscle power to get things done). We ended all this. Now people feel relieved that there is rule of law,” he said. He also pointed out that the BJP had won every local civic body poll, five mayor elections and the Jind Lok Sabha bypoll in the state ever since his government took power in the state.  

With nationalism becoming the flavour of this political season, the chief minister said the issue is intrinsic to the party’s ideology. Mr Khattar believes that while propping the nationalism agenda front and centre, the party has not forgotten the good governance plank it had come to power on. “What is wrong with nationalism? It is the foundation of our party. It is our country’s sanskar. Having said that, did we lose the agenda of development? No, we did not,” Mr Khattar said.

Attacking the Congress for raising doubts over Balakot surgical strike, Mr Khattar pointed out that the BJP stood with the Congress whenever there was trouble brewing against the nation.

“PM is our leader and if he is under attack then the country is under attack. We stood with them despite our people getting upset with us when Indira Gandhi was killed. And you see their manifesto today. Congress speaks of abolishing IPC Section 124A (sedition), says Article 370 (special status of Jammu and Kashmir) should not be tinkered with and Afspa should be diluted,” added Mr Khattar.

The chief minister also raised doubts over the Congress’ understanding of surgical strikes. “They keep changing the number of surgical strikes that have happened during their tenure. I wonder if they know what a surgical strike is?” he said.

The chief minister stated that Haryana’s voters have vehemently rejected caste-based politics and are going to vote in favour of the party that aims to provide development and corruption-free good governance.

With 10 Lok Sabha seats, Haryana is one of the states that the BJP is hoping to do well in. In 2014 the party had won seven Lok Sabha seats from the state.

Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading.