POLITICAL PARTIES EYE JAT VOTES IN BARODA BYPOLL

Forthcoming Baroda byelection seems to have become a battle of prestige for all political parties, including the BJP- JJP, Congress and INLD, which have declared their candidates.  The BJP and JJP, alliance partners in the state government, have fielded Brahmin candidate Yogeshwar Dutt, former Olympian who lost last assembly election to the Congress contestant Krishan […]

by Ravinder Malik - October 17, 2020, 8:00 am

Forthcoming Baroda byelection seems to have become a battle of prestige for all political parties, including the BJP- JJP, Congress and INLD, which have declared their candidates. 

The BJP and JJP, alliance partners in the state government, have fielded Brahmin candidate Yogeshwar Dutt, former Olympian who lost last assembly election to the Congress contestant Krishan Hooda, while the Congress and INLD have decided to field Jat candidates namely Induraaj Narwal and Jogender Malik, respectively. 

Besides, another candidate Kapoor Singh Narwal, who also hails from the Jat community and was believed to be from the Congress party earlier, has filed the nomination as an independent candidate. 

There is a common feeling that the Congress is a divided house in the state. Sources in the party said that all factions in the Congress were not in favour of fielding Kapoor from the seat which made him contest the election as an independent candidate.

 Loktantra Suraksha Party Supremo Rajkumar Saini, former MP who was the first runner up in the last assembly election from the Gohana segment, will also contest the Baroda by-poll.

 Thus, the caster factor seems to be playing a crucial role in the election.

 It is learnt that the agitation of the agrarian community would increase the ruling party BJP’s problems. Given this, the ruling party has handed over the responsibility of campaigning to all Jat stalwarts so that they can convince farmers along with Jats in before the election takes place. BJP high command had appointed OP Dhankhar as Haryana party chief keeping in view the Jat factor. His role in campaigning in Baroda seat would, therefore, be quite crucial.

 Jats account for more than 50 percent of the electorate in the seat. Because of this, no party wants to ignore the Jats.

 In view of this, all parties have come up with a strategy to woo the Jat voters. Despite a string of efforts, the BJP failed to form government in Haryana single-handedly last time and managed to do so by allying with JJP, a new entrant in the state politics.