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'Every Haryana assembly seat has its own unique problems to earn victory for a political party and you as a politician need to know what are those issues and tackle it.'
In July 2024, when Mohan Lal Badoli was chosen to lead the Bharatiya Janata Party's Haryana unit, he faced an uphill task.
Just the previous month he had lost the Lok Sabha elections from Sonepat to the Congress's Satpal Brahmachari by 21,816 votes.
The BJP won only five out of Haryana's 10 Lok Sabha seats, whereas in 2019 it had won all the seats. In the assembly elections five years ago, it had to take the help of Dushyant Chautala's Jannayak Janata Party to form the government.
In March this year, anticipating an anti-incumbency wave the BJP replaced Manohar Lal Khattar as chief minister with Nayab Singh Saini.
At that time, it seemed that all was lost for the BJP in Haryana, and dirges were being sung for its party.
To make matter worse, all exit polls predicted that the Congress party was sweeping Haryana.
Three months after Badoli was put in charge of the state unit, the BJP won a stunning 48 out of 90 seats in the Haryana assembly elections and will form a government in the state for the third successive time.
"If you analyse the 2024 general elections you will find that although the BJP won only five out of 10 seats, it had won 44 assembly seats within those 10 parliamentary segments. And by doing the right booth management we have won four additional seats in the assembly elections as our total count is 48 seats out of 90. This was a simple booth management exercise which our workers managed well this time," Badoli tells Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com.
How did the BJP snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in Haryana?
It is the policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Centre that saw the BJP win Haryana.
The people of Haryana have returned that love back to him.
This is the third time when we have won the state and it is a hat-trick.
The BJP government in Haryana delivered on the promises made to the people during its two terms. And the people of Haryana in return have shown faith in PM Modi's leadership.
Exit polls predicted the Congress would return to power after 10 years.
Exit poll agencies do not speak to every section of society. They speak only to certain sections of people and give their results.
If they meet 100 people and that too from the same kind of people, how will they be able to give the right prediction?
They cannot do their analysis by speaking to those same 100 types of people.
In villages there are so many different types of people. You cannot make a conclusion on your poll verdict by talking to a few of them.
You need to speak to every section of society in villages and only then give your judgement on exit poll.
Does it mean the pollsters had a poor sample size to predict the election outcome?
You must know that in Haryana there are communities who will never dare to tell you the truth as to who they voted for. And even if they tell you, they will lie because of the fear factor.
Bhupinder Hooda was the chief minister in waiting as everyone said, so where did he and the Congress fail?
The Congress got arrogant and overconfident in Haryana.
They thought they will have a cakewalk and win the elections.
Congress leaders were giving big talk before the elections whereas BJP leaders were quietly working on the ground among the people.
Ashok Tanwar quit the BJP at the last moment to join the Congress. It shows that even your party members were not sure that the BJP was winning Haryana.
Ashok Tanwar got influenced by Bhupinder Hooda. He felt he would get some plum posting if the Congress formed the government so he switched over at the last moment.
Hoodaji hypnotises and tells lies all the time, thus influencing people, and Ashok Tanwar fell for it.
Haryana saw massive kisan rallies against the three farm laws in 2021 which the Modi government then withdrew, and there was anger against your party. But it seems that even the farmers of Haryana stood by the BJP.
If you do an analysis of assembly seats you will find that the BJP did well in places where the farming population has a huge presence.
My own seat, Rai in Sonepat, was won by Krishna Gahlot of the BJP.
The Kharkhauda assembly seat, which falls in the farmers' belt, there too a BJP candidate won. The BJP's Pawan Kharkhoda defeated Congress candidate Jaiveer Singh by 58,084 votes. This place also happens to be Hooda's sasural.
Gohana and Narwana seats too, the BJP won, so you can understand how popular the BJP is among the farmers of Haryana.
Then who were the farmers staging adharna against the BJP government at the Centre over farm laws?
All these farmers were managed by Hooda. They are always ready to move on his orders. He can get them on railway tracks anytime to stop the trains, or to block roads. This is his style of politics.
Since you mention Hooda, it is said the BJP won due to the consolidation of anti-Jat votes as the other castes did not want Jat dominance over the state?
It is wrong to say the Jat community did not vote for the BJP in Haryana.
Every section of the population from different castes and communities has voted for the BJP in Haryana. Be it scheduled castes/scheduled tribes, Jats, OBCs or any other caste. All of them voted for the BJP.
Farmers do not belong to any single caste as all castes in Haryana are associated with farming. You will find even Bania community people doing farming work in Haryana. If you speak to him you will feel he is a Jat but he will be from the Bania community.
There was a feeling the BJP would lose the assembly election because you replaced Manohar Lal Khattar chief minister because of his unpopularity in March 2024.
It is wrong to say he was unpopular as Manohar Lal Khattar did great work for Haryana. He ensured that 145,000 Haryana youth got jobs without 'kharchi-parchi (bribes and recommendations)'. He did a very transparent job in hiring people to government posts.
I challenge you even today get me one candidate who got a job in the Haryana government through the kharchi-parchi route.
During the Congress time government jobs were on sale and it was only those with influence who could get jobs. Haryana rejected kharchi-parchi Congress rule. They did not want to go back to that era. This was the biggest change Haryana saw in 2014.
Do you deny that Khattar was sacked?
No, he was not sacked. The party needed him at the Centre so he went. People unnecessarily stated that he was removed from his post due to unpopularity. There were Lok Sabha elections and therefore he was sent to contest elections.
If you recall, the day he quit his post as Haryana chief minister his name was announced from the Karnal Lok Sabha constituency (Khattar won the Karnal seat and is now a Cabinet minister in the Modi ministry).
But then the BJP won only five out of 10 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Haryana whereas it had won all 10 seats in 2019. This must be why the Congress was confident of its victory in the assembly elections.
This was the perception that the Congress tried to create in the minds of the people of Haryana.
For some reason we did not manage the parliamentary elections well as all our top leaders from Haryana were contesting elections and so were our party organising committee members. We failed to manage our party workers correctly at that time.
I too lost my Lok Sabha election from Sonepat by 21,000 votes.
Why do you think the allegations against BJP leader Brij Bhushan Singh by Vinesh Phogat and other wrestlers did not dent the BJP?
Vinesh Phogat won by only 6,015 votes from Julana. It is quite obvious now that a lot of politics was involved in it as she went on to join the Congress party.
Take another example of farmers leader Gurnam Singh Chaduni, who contested the assembly elections from the Pehowa seat. He got only 1,169 votes.
Now you ask this question, how did leaders like Gurnam Singh Chaduni become so big in the farmers movement when they had no support from the people of Haryana?
These are the questions that the people should find answers on their own so that they will know the truth.
Before the elections it looked as if even Mr Modi was not confident of victory in Haryana? He came only four times to campaign.
This is the wrong interpretation. PM Modi energised all of us and the people of Haryana with his four rallies.
The BJP was always confident of winning Haryana. It was sheer hard work by our party workers that ensured we won the state.
You became BJP state chief in July 2024 just three months before the assembly elections, so what strategy did you adopt for victory?
The Opposition thought the BJP was down and out because I too had lost the election in June 2024. But I knew within my heart that our party winning five out of 10 seats in the Lok Sabha election was because of our failure to manage the poll booths.
If you analyse the 2024 general elections you will find that although the BJP won only five out of 10 parliamentary seats, it had won 44 assembly seats within those 10 parliamentary segments.
And by doing the right booth management we have won four additional seats in the assembly elections as our total count is 48 seats out of 90.
This was a simple booth management exercise which our workers managed well this time.
The Congress is blaming the Aam Aadmi Party and the Indian National Lok Dal for its loss, saying these parties ate into Opposition votes. Do you agree?
All lies. The BJP won on its own merit.
Every Haryana assembly seat has its own unique problems to earn victory for a political party and you as a politician need to know what are those issues and tackle it.
The BJP micro managed those assembly seats where we were sure we will win. And we did win in those 48 seats because of our party workers who did a good job.
Now to say that the AAP and INLD are responsible for the BJP's victory is nothing but a bunch of lies.