Elections to the 90-member Haryana Assembly will take place on October 5 and results will be out on October 8
A multi-cornered contest is expected in the elections for Haryana’s 90 member Assembly, with Aam Aadmi Party, Indian National Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party, Jannayak Janata Party and Indian National Lok Dal all fielding candidates in the fray. BJP will seek to hold on to its mandate and return for a third term in office. Meanwhile, AAP and Congress have announced separate candidate lists after seat-sharing talks between the two parties failed.
Some Congress and BJP leaders have also entered the polls as independent candidates after not receiving tickets from their parties. Of these, several withdrew their nominations ahead of the cut-off date.
All major parties are also vying for Dalit votes in the State, which has a sizeable number of Assembly seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes, at 17. In the last Assembly elections as well as 2024 Lok Sabha polls, there was reduced support to BJP from the Dalit community, while Congress has seen gains. In 2014, BJP had won nine of the 17 seats reserved for the SC community, but in the 2019 assembly polls, this dropped to five. The Congress on the other hand, secured four and seven seats respectively in 2014 and 2019. Further, the Congress improved on its vote share among SC-reserved seats during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, with a post-poll analysis by CSDS-Lok Niti noting that a majority of Dalits in Haryana shifted from BJP-led National Democratic Alliance to the INDIA bloc. Seeking to capitalise on this sentiment, prominent Dalit leader Selja Kumari had been fielded from Sirsa during the elections. Observers however, had suggested that it would have been more advantageous to the party if she had been fielded for the Assembly elections.
In a previous interview with The Hindu, Ronki Ram, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Chair Professor of Political Science at Panjab University, said the narrative that the BJP could end the reservation worked against them, during the 2024 Lok Sabha election and was likely to hinder them now. “The Lok Sabha elections were held only a few months ago, and the narrative that the BJP could end reservation during the poll campaign had gone deeply into the minds of SCs, which is difficult to undo at this stage. The BJP is making a desperate attempt but it would be difficult to regain the lost trust,” he noted.
Another issue which is likely to impact polls is resentment over the Union government’s farm laws, now-repealed, which had sparked large-scale protests by farmers for over a year. This may have a bearing on BJP’s performance in the Assembly elections, as it did during the poll campaign for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Finally, the Agniveer scheme is a point of contention during the polls as well. In his first election rally in Haryana on September 17, Union Home Minister Amit Shah accused the Congress of playing politics over the Agnipath scheme, and assured the crowd that all Agniveers returning from the Army after four years would have jobs in Haryana, a claim likely to strike a chord in Bhiwani-Mahendragarh, which sends several soldiers to the Army each year.
In the 2019 Assembly elections, BJP had won 40 seats, while Congress came in second with 31 seats. The Jannayak Janata Party made a solid showing with 10 seats, and seven independents were also elected. One seat each went to the Haryana Lokhit Party and the Indian National Lok Dal.
Congress
In Haryana, Congress has relied on sitting MLAs, party loyalists and old faces. It has renominated all of its 28 sitting MLAs. With 24 Jat candidates, Congress has placed reliance on Jat community votes, with former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda being a prominent representative in the party.
Among the key leaders in the State, Bhupinder Singh Hooda has been fielded from Garha Sampla-Kiloi, State Unit Chief Udai Bhan will contest from Hodai, while deputy CM Chander Mohan is in the fray from Panchkula. On September 6, former wrestler Vinesh Phogat and Olympic wrestler Bajrang Punia had both joined the Congress party. Now Vinesh Phogat has been fielded from Julana.
In a bid to strengthen party loyalty, seven relatives of party leaders have also been given tickets. Hisar MP Jai Prakash’s son Vikas Saharan has been nominated from Kalayat. Aditya Surjewala, the son of Rajya Sabha MP and congress Spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, will be contesting from Kaithal.
According to Balram Sharma, head of the political science department at the D.A.V. College in Karnal, while Hooda and his supporters garnered many of the tickets, those supporting Selja and Surjewala have also been accorded berths.
Bharatiya Janata Party
The BJP is the current ruling party in Haryana, having been in power for two terms and looking to extend its rule to a third. It has faced internal conflict of late due to its decision to drop several sitting MLAs and replace candidates, having swapped out about one-fourth of its total 90 candidates to avoid anti-incumbency sentiments. Its list is dominated by OBC, Brahmin and Punjabi candidates, in keeping with BJP’s usual strategy on banking on non-Jat communities.
The MLAs who were dropped include two ministers — School Education minister Seema Trikha,who was replaced with Dhanesh Adlakha in Badkhal, and Health Minister Banwari Lal, who was replaced by Krishna Kumar as the candidate from Bawal. Kavita Jain and Ram Bilas Sharma were also dropped, as was State party president Mohan Lal Badoli.
Among notable party leaders, Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini is contesting from Ladwa.
Savtri Jindal, mother of Kurukshetra MP Naveen Jindal, who did not get a BJP ticket, is in the fray as an Independent candidate in Hisar, facing off against senior BJP leader Kamal Gupta.
Aam Aadmi Party
The Aam Aadmi Party has also fielded candidates for 89 seats in the Haryana Assembly election. Candidates include Raj Kaur Gill from Ambala Cantt, Lalit Tyagi from Yamunanagar, Joga Singh from Ladwa, Satbir Goyat from Kithal, Sunil Bindal from Karnal, Sukhbir Malik from Panipat Rural, and Anurag Dhanda from Kalayat. Ahead of the deadline, BJP leaders Satish Yadava and Sunil Rao, the brother-in-law of actor Rajkumar Rao, joined AAP.
In the 2019 Haryana Assembly polls, AAP had fielded 46 candidates but failed to win a single seat. It received a vote share less than the NOTA option. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, AAP’s Sushil Kumar Gupta— the State AAP chief— lost in the battle for the Kurukshetra seat. Seat-sharing talks with Congress failed to progress owing to this poor performance; AAP had sought 9-10 assembly segments in Haryana.
Jannayak Janata Party
The Jannayak Janata Party, which won 10 seats in the previous elections, has stitched together a pre-poll alliance with Aazad Samaj party. Among key candidates are Digvijay Chautala, contesting from Dabwali, and Dushyant Chautala, in the fray from Uchana. JJP has also expressed support to Dushyant’s uncle Ranjit Singh Chautala, contesting as an independent from Rania after being denied a ticket by the BJP.
Indian National Lok Dal
The Indian National Lok Dal, which had won one seat in the previous elections, has stitched a pre-poll alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party. Candidates from the party in the fray include four family members, including Sunaina Chautala, the daughter-in-law of the late Partap Singh Chautala, and a brother of INLD head Om Prakash Chautala. Also in the fray are the grandsons of the late Devi Lal, Aditya Chautala, Arjun Chautala, and Om Prakash Chautala’s son and INLD secretary-general Abhay Chautala.
The party initially also supported Haryana Lokhit Party. However, INLD secretary-general Abhay Chautala said he would reconsider his alliance with the HLP after BJP threw its support behind HLP’s Gopal Kanda.