Return Game

Thanks to its chief minister’s clean image and a weak opposition, the BJP is set to retain power in Haryana

- Soni Mishra

In the run-up to the assembly polls, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar is confidence personified. Slogans such as ‘Phir ek baar, Manohar sarkar’, ‘MaNo Again’ and ‘Ab ki baar, 75 paar’—rip-offs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s electioneering catchphrases—define his reelection campaign.

Khattar and his party have plenty of reasons to be upbeat. The BJP swept the Lok Sabha elections here, winning all ten seats. Having come to power in the state on its own for the first time in 2014, the BJP has strengthened its position, consolidating its anti-Jat support base and splintering the Jat votes. The opposition, meanwhile, has diminished at an alarming rate.

The BJP won 58 per cent votes in the Lok Sabha polls, and came second in only 11 of the 90 assembly seats. The Congress’s vote share was 28 per cent, and Om Prakash Chautala’s Indian National Lok Dal, a formidable regional force till not long ago, got barely two per cent votes.

The BJP, however, is not taking it easy, and has been first off the block in launching its poll campaign. Khattar carried out a fortnight-long ‘Jan Ashirwad Yatra’, and Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have already addressed rallies. The BJP is banking on Khattar’s clean image. The former RSS pracharak who was handpicked by Modi for the top job, may have had a jittery start following criticism of his handling of the violent Jat reservation protests. But, Khattar has succeeded in creating an image of a leader who has given the state a corruption-free and transparent regime. “We have provided an honest government. Every section of the society has benefited,” said state BJP chief Subhash Barala. “We have earned the trust of the people with the work that we have done in the last five years.”