Haryana and Maharashtra : Going in the BJP’s Basket?

By Deepak Parvatiyar

October 16, 2014

From celebrated writer-director-poet Gulzar to superstars Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan, and from teen heartthrobs Ranbir Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor to Bollywood’s own members of Parliament Hema Malini,  Rekha, Jaya Bachchan, and Kirron Kher – the glamorous faces of tinsel town provided enough photo-ops  as they lined up to cast their votes on the polling day (15th October) in Mumbai. But if one thought that the star-struck people would follow their matinee idols to turnout in large numbers to cast their votes, then this was not the case. Go vote”, tweeted superstar Salman Khan. He exhorted people to choose candidates “like girlfriends”. Polling had not picked up till late afternoon in Maharashtra and political parties started pressing panic buttons. Finally, Maharashtra recorded an impressive 64 percent turnout – about four per cent more than the Assembly elections of 2009.

Highest Ever Turnout in Haryana

Significantly, Haryana witnessed the largest turnout ever of 75.5 percent. While in all 1,351 candidates including 109 women are in the fray this time, the main contest is between the Congress (which has retained  33 sitting MLAs), the Bharatiya Janata Party (which preferred Congress and INLD rebels over party workers for tickets in several constituencies. Of the 25 Jat candidates that the party fielded, 19 are the Congress and INLD deserters), and the main opposition party in the state assembly, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD).  The BJP relies heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s charisma to win.

Polling by and large peaceful in Maharashtra and Haryana

In Maharashtra too, it is largely a five-cornered contest for the 288-member state Assembly between the Congress, which has fielded 287 candidates, the BJP (280 candidates), the Nationalist Congress Party (278 candidates), the Shiv Sena (282 candidates), and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (219 candidates). Of the 4,119 candidates in the electoral fray in the state, 3843 are men and 276 women. Polling was marred by rains in some parts of Vidarbha in Maharashtra where a policeman on election duty was killed after being struck by lightning in Avdeghat polling station of Savner constituency. The overall voting was peaceful in both the states barring some minor skirmishes between the supporters of rival parties. In Narnaund in Haryana, the BJP candidate and Chief Ministerial aspirant, Capt Abhimanyu alleged that attempts to capture booth were made in Baans village in his constituency at the behest of rival INLD, which though denied the charge. In Sirsa, window panes of a car belonging to the supporters of Haryana Lokhit Party’s Gopal Kanda were damaged following a clash between the HLP and INLD workers there while in Kalka, INLD supporters allegedly misbehaved with the Haryana Jan Chetna Party (HJCP) candidate Shakti Rani, who is the wife of HJPC president Venod Sharma. Four persons were seriously injured in Narwana in Haryana following a clash between the INLD and BJP supporters there during the polling. In Mumbai, the Akil Bharatiya Sena candidate Geeta Gawli’s vehicle too was reportedly vandalised in Byculla while there were reports of minor clashes between the supporters of Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena in Ghatkopar. There were some reports of glitches in Electronic Voting Machines and Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) system as well at quite a few polling centres including Mumbai’s Magathane constituency near Borivali, and in Sewree, Nagpur, Wardha. There were complains that the voters’ rolls were not in order in some booths of Nashik. In Karnal, Haryana too, polling was suspended in booth No. 80 due technical glitch in EVM.

Elections Crucial for Political Heavyweights

Fates of many stalwarts including Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and his Haryana counterpart Bhupinder Singh Hooda (both Congress), INLD strongman Ajay Chautala, Maharashtra BJP president Devendra Fadnavis and Haryana BJP strongman Captain Abhimanyu are now sealed in the ballot box. High percentage of voting in their respective strongholds does auger well for these leaders. If results of the last Parliament elections are taken into consideration then the BJP sits pretty in Haryana where it won seven of the ten seats, and Maharashtra as well where it topped the list by bagging 23 of the total 48 parliamentary seats. However, Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda claims Lok Sabha elections and Assembly elections in Haryana are contested on different grounds and to buttress his point, cited examples of the past when Congress could not win a single seat from the state in the Lok Sabha election in 1999 but still stood second after INLD with 21 seats in the Assembly polls held a few months later in 2000. This time though, the BJP is leading in both the states in almost all exit polls.  “The highest ever voter turnout in Haryana is testimony to the fact that voters have voted out the ruling Congress party,” says Braj Mohan Singh, Head of News at the prominent Punjab and Haryana television channel, PTC news. If exit polls are any indication to go by, BJP is emerging as the single largest party in Haryana and Maharashtra.