Abhay Chautala with Mayawati
Abhay Chautala has formed an alliance with Mayawati ahead of the assembly elections in Haryana. The alliance was officially announced in Chandigarh on Thursday. Under the alliance, the Bahujan Samaj Party will contest 37 out of 90 assembly seats. INLD will field its candidates on the remaining 53 seats.
Chautala’s alliance is being seen as a blow to the Congress, especially to former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda. There are two reasons for this. The first reason is Chautala’s juxtaposition based on the Jat and Dalit equation. Congress is also in the electoral fray based on this equation. Another reason is the incident during the Lok Sabha elections, due to which the INLD was pulled out of the Bharat Alliance.
However, this is not the first time a leader or a party is on Chautala’s radar. Chautala spoiled the Aam Aadmi Party’s game by contesting from Kurukshetra in the recent Lok Sabha elections.
Your game in the Lok Sabha is spoiled.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Aam Aadmi Party fielded its candidate in Haryana’s only seat, Kurukshetra. State president of the party Sushil Gupta was in the field from here. The equation was also in AAP’s favor due to India being in the coalition, but INLD’s Abhay Chautala entered the fray at the last minute.
Your game got spoiled when Abhay entered the field. In this Kurukshetra battle, AAP’s Sushil Gupta lost to BJP’s Naveen Jindal by 31 thousand votes. Here Abhay Chautala has got 76 thousand votes. BSP’s Deepak Mehra also managed to get around 21 thousand votes.
Now to keep an eye on Congress?
1. Congress’ attempt to break the Jat and Dalit equation
Congress has prepared for an alliance of Jats and Dalits in the Lok Sabha elections. Due to this alliance, the party has won 5 out of 10 Lok Sabha seats. According to survey agency CSDS, 68 percent of Dalits voted in favor of the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections. At the same time, the party also secured 64 percent of the Jat votes.
Jats constitute about 22 percent of Haryana’s population, while Dalits also constitute around 21 percent here. The Congress wants to carry forward the same formula in the assembly elections as well.
Chautala is also trying to break the Congress alliance by adopting the same formula. Chautala’s party has been doing Jat politics since its inception, while BSP has been doing Dalit politics.
2. Hooda opposed the inclusion of INLD
Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, 28 parties formed an alliance against the BJP. The foundation of this coalition was laid in Haryana itself. Nitish Kumar announced the alliance here on Chaudhary Devilal’s birth anniversary in 2022.
However, when the alliance was ready, only Abhay Chautala was thrown out. Congress preferred AAP in Haryana but not INLD in seat sharing.
Bhupinder Hooda is said to have opposed INLD’s entry into the Grand Alliance. Hooda’s argument was that the Jats were no longer the INLD’s core constituencies. Those who used to vote earlier have now gone with Dushyant Chautala. Accepting Hooda’s contention, the High Command did not include the INLD.
Now it is being said that INLD is trying to take revenge for 2024 by forming an alliance with BSP. Because, the political career of Bhupinder Singh Hooda on behalf of Congress is at stake.
3. Strategies for converting numbers into seats
In the 2019 elections, the INLD lost even the seats that were once considered its stronghold. In Yamunanagar seat, INLD’s Dilbag Singh lost by 1455 votes, where the BSP candidate got around 7 thousand votes. Similar results were seen in Asandh Assembly seats.
Here BSP candidate lost by 1700 votes, while INLD got 2200 votes. According to the Election Commission, INLD got around 3 lakh votes and BSP 5.18 lakh votes in 2019 elections.
BSP and INLD have formed an alliance with the strategy of converting these votes into seats.
