Haryana Assembly Election 2024
BJP has taken a strong social engineering step by fielding its candidate for the Haryana assembly elections. BJP has released the first list of names of candidates for 67 of the total 90 seats in the state. The party did not gamble on candidates who had lost elections twice and changed candidates on 40 seats. The BJP has canceled the tickets of 9 MLAs, including three ministers, but has been careful to balance the caste and political equations in selecting candidates.
BJP has staked its electoral bets on the OBC-Jat-Brahmin-Punjabi community to achieve a hat-trick of power in Haryana. BJP has been able to establish its roots in Haryana politics with the help of OBC-Punjabi votes, due to which it formed governments in 2014 and 2019 as well. The BJP has once again stuck to the same formula, but has also made big moves to win over the Jat and Brahmin votes. So BJP has fielded candidates keeping in mind the caste equation of the state.
How many tickets for which caste
Haryana has the largest population of OBC community, hence BJP has fielded maximum number of candidates from OBCs. BJP has fielded 16 candidates from OBC. After this, 13 tickets have been given to Jat community leaders. To remove the resentment of the Brahmin community, BJP has fielded 9 candidates. The BJP has fielded 13 tickets from the Dalit community, but fielded them only on all reserved seats. BJP has given tickets to 8 Punjabi, 5 Vaishya, 2 Rajput and 1 Sikh caste candidates.
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BJP played a big bet on OBCs
BJP has entered the assembly elections with an OBC face. Before the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP replaced Manohar Lal Khattar with Naib Singh Saini as Chief Minister, only when it was decided that the BJP was eyeing the OBC votes. After 56 years, Haryana got a Chief Minister from OBC in the form of Naib Saini. As another backward class person, Naib Saini is the second Chief Minister of the state after more than five decades.
The BJP is trying its luck in the elections by fielding Chief Minister Naib Singh Saini, which is trying to win the OBC vote. BJP has also placed a big bet on OBCs in the selection of candidates. The BJP has fielded 16 candidates from OBCs, including Gurjar, Yadav, Kashyap, Kumhar, Kamboj, Rajput and Saini communities. The party has fielded OBC candidates in Jagadhri, Ladwa, Kaithal, Indri, Samalkha, Rewari, Rania, Ateli, Nangal Chaudhary, Kosli, Badshahpur, Sohana and Tigaon seats.
Bets were also played on Gurjar and Yadav
BJP has bet the most on Gurjar and Yadav. BJP has fielded five Gurjar faces in its first list. Apart from Manmohan Bhada, it includes Kanwar Pal Gurjar, Lil Ram Gurjar, Tejpal Tanwar and Rajesh Nagar. The five Ahir leaders that the BJP has staked include Aarti Rao, Abhay Singh Yadav, Anil Dahina, Laxman Singh Yadav and Rao Narbir Singh.
BJP trusts the Jat community
In Haryana, a big political stake has been made in view of the political strength of the Jat community. Jats constitute 28 to 30 percent of the state’s population. BJP has fielded 13 candidates from the Jat community. The party has again fielded Jat leaders like Om Prakash Dhankhar and Captain Abhimanyu who lost in the 2019 assembly elections. Captain Abhimanyu has been given a ticket from Narnaund and Om Prakash Dhankhar has been made a candidate by transfer. The BJP has certainly included JJP MLA Ramkumar Gautam (Brahmin), who defeated Captain Abhimanyu, but has given him a ticket from Saphidon instead of Narnaund.
From the Jat community, BJP has fielded Kamlesh Dhanda from Kalayat assembly seat, Mahipal Dhanda from Panipat rural seat, Devendra Singh Babli from Tohana seat, Randhir Panihar from Nalwa seat, JP Dalal from Loharu seat, Umed Patuwas from Badhra seat, Sunil Sangwan from Dadri seat. . seat, Tosham Shruti Chaudhary has been given ticket from Mehm seat, Deepak Hooda from Mehm seat, Manju Hooda from Garhi Sampla Kiloi seat, Om Prakash Dhankhar from Badli seat and Captain Abhimanyu from Naronand seat. The way the party has fielded candidates from the Jat community makes it clear that the BJP is trying to woo the Jat votes in Haryana this time.
BJP’s big bet on Brahmins
BJP has made a major political move to woo the Brahmin community in Haryana. The party has tried its best to overcome the resentment of the Brahmin community. This time BJP has fielded 9 candidates from Brahmin community. BJP has fielded former Rohtak Lok Sabha MP Arvind Sharma as its candidate from Gohna seat. Dipendra had lost the Lok Sabha election to Huda in 2024 elections and has now fielded him in the assembly. Apart from this, Shakti Rani Sharma, who is the wife of former minister Vinod Sharma, has been nominated from the Kalka seat.
Ramkumar Gautam, who left JJP and joined BJP, has been nominated from Safidon seat. Apart from this, Devendra Atri from Uchana Kalan, Dinesh Kaushik from Bahadurgarh seat, Mukesh Sharma from Gurgaon seat, Gaurav Gautam from Palwal seat, Tekchand Sharma from Prithala seat, Mool Chand Sharma from Ballabgarh seat have been made candidates. The state has a large number of Brahmin voters, to cater to which the BJP has given more tickets than their population.
BJP fielded candidate from Dalit-Punjabi
The BJP has given 13 tickets to the Dalit community, but has fielded candidates on all reserved seats. The scheduled caste leaders that BJP has staked include Pawan Kumar from Kharkhoda seat, Sunita Duggal from Ratia seat, Rajinder Desujodha from Kalavali seat, Kapur Valmiki from Bawani Kheda, Renu Dabla from Kalnaur, Captain Birdhana from Jhajjar and Subhash from Shahabad Kalas. The BJP has maneuvered to woo the Dalit community by giving tickets to the Jatav community along with Valmiki, Dhanuk, Bawaria and Bazigar.
BJP has fielded 8 candidates from its core votebank Punjabi community. Punjabi voters are strongly aligned with the BJP in the state, leading to a move to woo their population by giving them tickets. BJP has fielded five candidates from Vysya community. BJP has given tickets to Gyan Chand Gupta, Kamal Gupta, Vipul Goyal, Ghanshyam Saraf and Asim Goyal from the Vaishya community. Out of which four are sitting MLAs except Vipul Goyal. BJP has given two candidates from Bishnoi community and two from Rajput community. Apart from this, BJP has also fielded a candidate from the Sikh community. BJP has adopted a strategy of strong social engineering through its candidates.
