After OP Dhankar, Rao Inderjit Singh adds to Haryana BJP’s problems

New Delhi: The Haryana unit of Bharatiya Janata Party is facing another crisis as senior leader and Union Minister Rao Inderjit Singh is adamant at the saffron unit for declaration of his daughter, Arti Singh Rao, as a candidate for the forthcoming Haryana Assembly polls.

It is understood that Singh has also made the party's central leadership aware of the aspirations of his daughter. The former Congress leader, who had joined the BJP ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, has also threatened that Arti Singh Rao will be fielded for the 2024 Assembly polls even if the party denies her a ticket, sources said.  

The senior BJP leader from Haryana is understood to be making these moves in an attempt at projecting and shifting his political legacy to his daughter ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha and state Assembly polls, sources said.

Singh had in the past slammed the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP-JJP coalition government in Haryana for discriminating against the Ahirwal region.

The Union Minister had alleged that the state government was not allocating or carrying out development works in south Haryana. The region is dominated by the Yadav community and is popularly known as the Ahirwal region. Singh is considered to be one of the strongest Ahir leaders from the region.

Singh had recently backed the agitation in support of the 'Ahir Regiment', a long pending demand for a separate regiment within the Indian Army. This move by Singh against the state and the Central government hasn't gone unnoticed and the leadership is expected to take appropriate action at the opportune time, sources said. 

Allocating a ticket to Arti is expected to be tricky as the BJP has been opposing various parties in the state over their dynastic outlook in selection of candidates, sources added.

With about 10 percent population and a strong hold over land and government jobs, Yadavs are considered to be one of most dominant communities in the state and can have an effect on the electoral outcome in about 25 Assembly constituencies and at least four Lok Sabha constituencies.

Yadavs are one of the caste’s that has strongly backed the BJP in its consolidation of non-Jat castes over the past decade. The consolidation of non-Jat votes was used by the saffron unit to ride to victory in 2014 and 2019 state legislative Assembly polls.

With Haryana being a key state in BJP’s strategic plan for 2024, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking a third term. If Singh fields his daughter and backs other rebels, the party fears losing parts of its non-Jat consolidated vote in the region which could adversely affect its seat count, sources added.

The saffron unit has been, over the past few months, facing a crisis in Haryana after reports of a rift between Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and party’s state unit chief OP Dhankar.

It is believed that there has been a growing distance between the government and the BJP’s local organisation, creating trouble in smooth functioning of the saffron unit. With the Central leadership apprised of the issues being faced by the Haryana unit, the top leadership is expected to take a decision to resolve the crisis after the Gujarat and Himachal poll results, sources said.  

Currently, the 90-member Haryana Legislative Assembly has BJP 40, Jannayak Janta Party 10 and Congress 31 members. The other seats are held by Indian National Lok Dal and Independents.

The party had secured 49 seats in the 2014 Haryana Assembly polls, forming its first ever government in the state under Manohar Lal Khattar. However, BJP had to ally with the JJP in 2019 after its seats fell short of the halfway mark due to rebellion in the saffron unit over distribution of tickets.  

While the BJP had secured seven out of the ten Lok Sabha seats in 2014, the state had given all 10 seats to the saffron unit in 2019. Party sources stated that the BJP hopes to repeat its 100 percent strike rate in Haryana in 2024 as the Narendra Modi government seeks its third term at the Centre.