From 4 MLAs to 47, BJP wins big in Haryana

The combination of prime minister Narendra Modi's charisma and the deft planning and micro-electoral management of the BJP president Amit Shah was more pronounced in Haryana than in Maharashtra. Haryana witnessed a wave created by the combination sweeping through all castes by raising party's tally from 4 to 47.

The power shift was, however, historic in Haryana, where the party won absolute majority even with a skeletal structure on the ground. It has only four MLAs in the outgoing assembly. The incumbent Congress government led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda has been decimated, coming a distant third with only 15 seats. Besides Modi addressing 11 public meetings in this tiny but politically significant state, the final victory boiled down to clever cast combinations. The party, which has swept non-Jat areas of North and South Haryana, also kept the influential Jat community, which forms 24.5% of electorate, in good humour in their bastion of Central Haryana by giving tickets to 26 Jat community members. Jats had voted for the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) of Om Prakash Chautala in 2000 but shifted to Congress in 2004 and 2009. They, however, supported the BJP and Modi in the 2014 Lok Sabha. The Congress attempted to assuage them by giving them reservations, but it didn't work, neither in Lok Sabha polls, nor in the assembly elections. The BJP's winning combination in the state has been consolidation of Dalits (19.3%), Ahirs (15%), Brahmins (8%) and Gujjars (2.8%).

In some of the constituencies where Modi addressed rallies, the BJP candidates have won by a huge margin like Karnal, where Manoharlal Khattar won by over 60,000 votes, Badkhal (Faridabad) where Seema Trikha won by over 35,000 votes. Modi during his campaign made the corruption in the 10-year Congress rule of Bhupinder Singh Hooda his main plank followed by Robert Vadra-DLF land deals and dynasty politics. He repeatedly gave calls for a 'Congress-mukt Bharat', while referring to Vadra, son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
The INLD, which was hoping to garner sympathy votes for Chautala who is in jail after being convicted in the teachers' recruitment scam, too could not withstand the Modi wave. Chautala's grandson Dushyant Chautala too could not win the Uchana Kalan seat and lost to his BJP rival Prem Lata.

Those involved in engineering electoral strategy for Amit Shah in Haryana confided they had successfully turned Dalits in their favour. Of Haryana's 90 constituencies, 17 are reserved for scheduled castes and also SCs account for significant numbers in four more general seats. Shah worked to create divisions in the All India Backward and Minority Communities Employees' Federation (BAMCEF) set up by BSP founder Kanshi Ram in 1971. Some of its influential leaders were swung to the BJP fold and the party also scrambled its Dalit leaders from all over the country, who during the campaign toured Dalit villages, talked about the BJP, attended pujas and in many areas stayed in villages.

For Jats, the party roped in its national secretary Abhimanyu into the campaign and used clout of other top Jat leaders Choudhary Birendra Singh, Krishna Gehlawat, Surendra Singh Barwala, who had defected to the party either form Congress or INLD. Rao Inderjit Singh, also a former Congress leader, was made in-charge of Yadavs and Gujjars mostly inhabiting Gurgaon, Rewari and Mahendragarh. Also not only consolidating party's traditional Brahmin and Bania voters, Shah in the last minute roped in Sikh sect Dera Sacha Sauda, a traditional Congress supporter, as well to blunt the Akali edge, who were supporting the INLD.

Chief Ministers for Haryana: Perhaps for the first time, the BJP went to polls in Haryana without a chief ministerial candidate, completely banking on prime minister Modi, hitherto, a strategy of Congress. Many names have been doing the rounds, which include BJP's Karnal MLA Manoharlal Khattar, considered to be a close aide of Modi, Anil Vij, minister of state for road transport and Faridabad MP Krishan Pal Gujjar, former army officer, Captain Abhimanyu Singh Jat leader, and Ram Bilas Sharma, president of Haryana BJP.

The final tally: