Deepak Nagpal
The 2014 Lok Sabha poll battle in Haryana for 10 seats on April 10 will not be a two-way contest between the Congress and the Indian National Lok Dal like before.
As per pollsters, the battle this time could turn out to be interesting with surprises in store, thanks to the rising stature of parties like the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Haryana Janhit Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party in the state.
While the Congress would be looking to retain most of the nine seats it won in 2009, the INLD would seek to open its account as the party had failed to win a single seat in the last Lok Sabha elections. The tenth seat was bagged by the HJC, which is fighting the upcoming polls in alliance with the BJP.
For the Congress, it would not be a cakewalk this time around as the Bhupinder Hooda-led government in the state has been marred by various land scams and other controversies. That has hit the image of the Congress party hard, not helped either by the corruption-marred performance of the UPA government at the Centre.
The alleged land scam involving Sonia Gandhi`s son-in-law Robert Vadra has particularly dented the Congress` anti-corruption plank, which its 2014 face Rahul Gandhi has been promoting in the form of RTI, Lokpal, Whistleblowers` Protection Bill etc.
Congress MP Naveen Jindal, who has been renominated from Kurukshetra, has particularly faced much flak over corruption in the coal blocks allocation scam.
The Congress is also battling desertions as well as detractors in the run-up to polls.
CM Hooda`s `closest friend` and political aide Venod Sharma, a former union minister, has quit the Congress and is seeking a ticket from rival parties. Several MLAs have also revolted over various issues, including for being denied Lok Sabha ticket.
Considering all these factors, the Congress has tried to field its tested hands in the form of Deepender Hooda (Rohtak), Shruti Choudhry (Bhiwani-Mahenderagarh), Arvind Sharma (Karnal) and Avtar Singh Bhadana (Faridabad).
The HJC and the BJP, meanwhile, are hoping to capitalise on their individual strengths in various constituencies and spring up a surprise. While the BJP will contest from eight seats, the HJC will field candidates on two seats.
There was earlier talk of the BJP being in a dilemma on whether to stick with the alliance with HJC or rope in former CM Om Prakash Chautala`s INLD to capitalise on the anti-incumbency against the Hooda government. However, the INLD and HJC were in no mood of being part of any alliance together and the former decided to go it alone in the national polls.
The INLD has fielded candidates on all 10 seats and among them are OP Chautala`s grandson Dushyant Chautala from Hisar and controversial lawyer RK Anand from Faridabad.
The Aam Aadmi Party, meanwhile, has focussed on Haryana immensely after its stunning show in the Delhi Assembly Elections last December.
Senior party leader Yogendra Yadav is contesting from Gurgaon neighbouring Delhi, and has been touring the state in a bid to establish the new party in the Jat community-dominated state.
The Arvind Kejriwal-led party is fielding candidates on all 10 seats in Haryana.
While the AAP is not expected to repeat its Delhi-like performance here, its rivals do believe the newbie would cut into their votes thereby upsetting the equations.
The AAP is banking on the youth, the educated class and the middle class for votes. On the AAP radar are not just the General Elections, but also the state Assembly polls due by October later this year.
Interesting to note here is that the AAP has given ticket to retired IAS officer Yudhvir Singh Khayalia (Hisar), who had overturned his predecessor Ashok Khemka`s cancellation of mutation of land parcels allotted to real estate major DLF and Robert Vadra. How that will affect the AAP vote base remains to be seen.
Price rise and perceived ignorance of the agriculture sector and farmers are also going to play a major role in deciding the outcome of Lok Sabha polls in the state.
The role of Khap Panchayats too will play crucial role in the poll outcome. No party has so far spoken against them over their medieval diktats; instead they have only tried to cajole them in the wake of persistent attack from the civil society, the media and the judiciary. The AAP even went on to say that they need not be banned.
