With the BJP taking a lead in declaring candidates from all 10 seats in Haryana, the party’s “non-Jat” faces, CM Nayab Singh Saini and former CM Manohar Lal Khattar, have emerged as “star campaigners” of the party in the run-up to the May 25 Lok Sabha elections, a national media outlet reported.
Even as the BJP is yet to announce the official list of star campaigners for the party’s official nominees, the BJP candidates are reposing faith in Saini and Khattar to campaign for them to romp home victorious.
In fact, it is going to be an uphill task for the BJP to retain all 10 seats, which the saffron party won by massive margins in the 2019 elections. As the Congress is yet to declare its nine candidates, the battle lines are still unclear. The AAP has already declared its candidate from the Kurukshetra seat, which had been allotted to it as part of the INDIA bloc seat-sharing formula.
With the BJP candidates basically relying on non-Jat votes, the two non-Jat leaders—Saini and Khattar—are much in demand by the party candidates across the state. By replacing Khattar with Saini recently, the party played the OBC card to polarise the non-Jat, especially OBC, votes in the run-up to the elections this year.
“Saini and Khattar are currently the tallest leaders in Haryana. In view of their connect with the masses, it is natural for the candidates to ask them to campaign for them,” claimed Varinder Garg, joint treasurer of the state BJP.
Party sources said the comparatively clean image of Khattar and Saini stood them in good stead. Besides, Khattar’s replacement by Saini would take care of the anti-incumbency against the Khattar government and help in polarising the non-Jat votes in favour of the BJP, said a senior party functionary.
That was perhaps the reason why prominent Jat faces of the party, Capt Abhimanyu and OP Dhankar, had been entrusted responsibilities for the Lok Sabha poll outside Haryana.
Riding high on the Modi wave and reported polarisation of non-Jat and urban votes, the BJP had won all 10 seats in the 2019 elections. The party hopes to repeat its performance even as the Congress promises to put up a spirited fight in the backdrop of anti-incumbency against the BJP government in view of high inflation and unemployment rates.
