With Mayawati’s appeal on the wane, BJP eyes gains in Haryana assembly elections

NEW DELHI: A weakening BSP has opened up opportunities for BJP to woo SC voters in Haryana, especially at a time when BJP’s ‘Mission-75’ for the upcoming polls depends on its performance in 17 SC seats. In 2014, BJP had won eight of the 17 SC reserved seats. “This time, we are targeting to win all the 17 seats,” BJP general secretary incharge of Haryana, Anil Jain, told ET.

On September 17, Jain along with BJP working president JP Nadda, addressed an SC sammelan in Kharkhauda, Jhajjar, in Haryana. “We are getting very good response at these meetings and have planned to hold one SC sammelan in each of the 90 assembly constituencies,” Jain added. Three such meetings have already taken place.

Dalits form 19% of the total electorate of Haryana and till 2009, BSP was a party to reckon with, especially among Dalit voters. BSP’s vote-share oscillated between 6-7% till the 2009 assembly polls. In 2009, BSP got 6.7% votes and bagged two seats. The party couldn’t win many seats but it did upset major party equations in the state. In 2014, BSP’s vote-share went down to 4% and it won only one seat.


Since the Lok Sabha elections, BSP had been trying to get into an alliance with political parties in Haryana, but was unsuccessful. The party has now decided to contest the elections alone. Earlier, BSP had announced an alliance with Ajay Chautala’s Jannayak Janata Party but it decided to opt out of the alliance.

“The opposition parties — be it Congress, INLD or JJP — have a share of Jat voters in some parts of the state,” said a state BJP leader. “Jats usually vote against BJP. But it could help us in getting Dalit votes as Dalits generally don’t vote along with Jats in Haryana.” Because of Hooda in Congress and Chautalas in two parties, BJP believes that Jats would largely side with these parties. In that case, Dalits could turn to BJP because of Jat-Dalit rivalry in the state.

The Jatavs among SCs are the most dominant community with almost half of the SC population comprising Jatavs in the state. The other half includes Valmikis, Khateeks and other communities.

“We give sizeable representation to all communities,” adds Jain. “Also, the way BJP government has worked in the state, the caste equation has collapsed.”