CHANDIGARH: In the final vote count, Haryana has sent pollsters back to the drawing board. Turning the exit polls on their head, the state has chosen for a record third time the BJP government since the state came into being in 1966. Big shots in the state Congress are scratching their head in disbelief even as the BJP enjoys the last laugh. In rough Haryanvi language, Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini has “fixed the pole in the ground (lath gaad diya).”How did it happen, should it have happened, when, on all counts, the Congress began the fight as a hot favourite with a catchy and effective slogan of ‘kisan’ (farmers), ‘pahelwan’ (wrestlers) and ‘jawan’ (soldiers)?The Congress emphasis was on the Jat vote bank comprising almost 27% of the state’s electorate. There lay the rub: the leader of opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda, a Jat, pushed for his candidates and got nominations for 72 of them. Of the 28 MLAs of the party, which he preferred, only 13 won.SS Chahar, former director of Centre of Haryana Studies in Rohtak, said: “BJP’s micro-management—from booth level and above—was well up to the mark. RSS too played a vital role.”
Source link
