Old warhorses wage new battle
NEW DELHI: The assembly poll results of Maharashtra and Haryana are likely to result in the return of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power in both the states. But there is a reason — or actually two reasons — why the BJP has not been able to get a majority on its own in Haryana, leaving it in search of support from others, and become more sharply dependent on its ally, the Shiv Sena, in Maharashtra.
The reasons are the 79-year old Sharad Pawar and the 72-year old Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
They hold out a lesson. In politics, setbacks are not permanent. In a democracy, every election is a new opportunity. Constant struggle and mobilisation, a risk-taking appetite, and deep local connect with the ground can turn fortunes.
OLD GUARD RETURNS
In 2018, Haryana’s former chief minister and senior Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda embarked on a pan-state yatra in order to wage a campaign against the Manohar Lal Khattar government and expose its failings.
But the Congress veteran’s target was elsewhere. His aides candidly admitted that the effort was directed as much against the party leadership — the then president Rahul Gandhi in particular — to force Gandhi’s hand to give the reins of state leadership to Hooda and declare him the de-facto CM candidate.
It was an effort to showcase power over his internal party rivals, in particular the state chief, Ashok Tanwar.
Hooda was not heard by his intended audience, like he had not been heard ever since the defeat in the 2014 assembly polls. He waited, but increasingly got restless — and in the middle of this year, seriously contemplated quitting the party along with his son, Deepender Hooda. He also struck a distinct note from the party high command on moves by the Central government such as the nullification of Article 370.
By then, however, a door had opened as the leadership of the party had shifted to Sonia Gandhi. The Congress’s “old guard” was back in the game -- in particular, Ahmed Patel, a leader with whom the Haryana veteran shared a good equation, and Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Haryana in-charge of the party. Hooda was made campaign in-charge of the state in early September.
On Thursday, he delivered. At a time of deep crisis, when the Congress is stuck in a web of low resources-low morale-depleting social base-ideological confusion-electoral setbacks and then a repeat of the vicious cycle, Hooda brought smiles to the party by winning 31 seats for the Congress in the state, more than double its tally of 2014. He mounted a comeback just five months after Congress was wiped out in the Lok Sabha polls, when he personally lost his own seat. Even in defeat — for it is very likely that the BJP will be able to form the government in the state — he showed the Congress could fight. The Opposition elder strikes back
In 2014, Narendra Modi praised Sharad Pawar. When the BJP emerged as the single largest party in the Maharashtra assembly, but did not quite have the numbers to form the government and was still negotiating with the Shiv Sena, Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which had fought elections on its own, enabled its government formation by not opposing it. Speculation grew that Pawar’s personal equations with Modi meant he would get softer on the party.
Fast-forward to 2018. Pawar emerged as the Opposition’s key architect in seeking to forge an anti-BJP national coalition. His formula — strike alliances in all states and consolidate non-BJP votes. The formula did not work, and everyone did not listen to his advice. But the BJP took note, and decided to mount an offensive against Pawar. Modi’s rhetoric against him sharpened in the elections. The NCP won just four seats. The future suddenly looked bleak. Pawar’s family was embroiled in internal feuds; his party leaders began defecting to the BJP and the Sena; central investigative agencies began to open cases against him; and the BJP was eyeing his Maratha constituency, his control over cooperatives, and his stronghold of western Maharashtra.
Instead of retreating, Pawar fought back. He assumed leadership of the NCP-Congress alliance in the state. He ensured the family feuds did not escalate out of control. He campaigned relentlessly, travelling and addressing dozens of rallies, day and night, in light and rain. He personally monitored seat dynamics. He played on Maratha pride. He stayed away, despite the BJP’s constant efforts to trap him into a debate on Article 370, from national issues — and instead focused on the local.
On Thursday, this elder of the national opposition — who first became chief minister of Maharashtra 41 years ago, and has completed 52 years in electoral politics — halted the BJP’s expansionary plans in the state. The NCP won 53 seats, and became the primary opposition in the state. Pawar showed why his political acumen has come to be so widely regarded. ..And then, a young Turk Dushyant Chautala was oneyear old when his great grandfather, Chaudhary Devi Lal, was in the reckoning to become India’s Prime Minister in 1989. The Jannayak, as Haryana’s tallest Jat leader was called by his supporters in the state, eventually became deputy PM in the Janata Dal government.
Through Chautala’s childhood, his grandfather Om Prakash Chautala repeatedly became Haryana’s chief minister. The young man came into adulthood in one of the most political settings, in one of north India’s most influential political families.
But when he was 25, the family suffered its most acute crisis. His father, Ajay, and grandfather, Om Prakash Chautala, were convicted in a corruption scam. Dushyant Chautala, the next year, fought the Lok Sabha polls and became the youngest member of the House from Hissar. But his fortunes remained mixed as a war broke out within the family, including his grandfather. Eventually, in 2018, the young leader broke away from the family where he learnt his politics and set up the Jannayak Janata Party. On Thursday, by winning 10 seats, even as the parent party, the Indian National Lok Dal, was reduced to merely one, Dushyant Chautala, now 31, showed he has truly inherited the Devi Lal mantle. He took away the Jat votes of INLD, and emerged as a possible swing force in the state.