THE GREAT HARYANA DANGAL

FACING ANTI-INCUMBENCY, THE BJP IS TRYING HARD TO PROTECT ITS BASTION FROM THE CONGRESS, WHICH FANCIES ITS CHANCES DESPITE INFIGHTING

- Anilesh S. Mahajan

Politics can turn foes into friends. And when it's the poll season, unforeseen overtures become all the more common. At a rally in the dusty town of Tohana on September 23, Union home minister Amit Shah amplified precisely such a counter-melody, one that has pepped up the Haryana assembly election, imparting a late twist to a contest that was being seen as all done and dusted. The speech was peppered with invocations of the work done during the decade-long rule of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), both in the state and at the Centre. But the real juice was the concern he showered upon Sirsa MP Kumari Selja-the Dalit face of the party seen to be in pole position, the rival Congress.

As the Grand Old Party smells power after a long dry spell, Selja has made no secret of her ambition to occupy the chief minister's seat and was seeking a ticket for herself and 35 loyalists. But only 13 could make the cut, and she was not among them. Ever since, the former Union minister kept a sullen aloofness from the campaign trail, even skipping the release of the Congress manifesto at its Delhi headquarters on September 18. Adding insult to her wounds, supporters of a party candidate-a loyalist of her bête noire Bhupinder Singh Hooda allegedly made casteist remarks targeting her during the filing of nominations at Narnaud in Hisar. At the Tohana rally, just a district away, Shah laid it on thick, saying this insult to a "Dalit ki beti" (Dalit's daughter) proved the Congress was an "anti-Dalit" party. Just before this, fellow Union minister and former Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar had claimed the BJP was "ready with an offer" for the Congress MP. Would Haryana, too, see a high-profile defection, a la Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra? That too of an old Gandhi family loyalist? Selja rubbished the speculation the same evening, though admitting that she was "hurt".