'We Are Voting For The Next Chief Minister'

A land-owning class, the Jats are a powerful community and account for 28 per cent of Haryana's population. The time, they believe, has now come for them to take revenge.

The residents of the premier Haryana constituency with the tongue twisting nomenclature of Garhi-Sampla-Kiloi (GSK) in Rohtak district are on an all-time high.

If the constituents of Julana have no hesitation in declaring that their candidate, woman wrestler Vinesh Phogat is not merely an MLA candidate but the future minister of sports, the 300,000 voters at GSK have dubbed Bhupinder Singh Hooda the chief minister elect.

Sixty-year old Savita Devi from the village of Bakheta in GSK speaks with a sense of pride when she declares, "We are voting for the next chief minister, we are not voting for a mere vidhayak (MLA)."

She lives with her daughter-in-law and her two young children. Her son works as a bus conductor and is away at work.

Why does she admire Hooda so much? Her smile becomes even broader.

"He may be 77 years of age but he once told us, 'I am never tired. I will never retire.' He has promised all us old people a pension of Rs 6,000 every year that can meet some of my daily needs. He has also promised free medical treatment up to Rs 25 lakhs and a legally binding MSP to our farmers. Obviously, we will support him."

This new found confidence is this septuagenarian, who has registered four consecutive victories from here in 2005 by poll, 2009, 2014 and 2019, is understandable because he is poised to achieve a record-breaking victory.

He was elected chief minister in 2005 and completed his second term in 2014 after which the baton of chief ministership passed on to Manohar Kal Khattar, a Punjabi, who on taking over the reins of government did his best to break the Jat dominance by giving prominence to Punjabi and non-Jat leaders.

The Jats have never forgiven Khattar for refusing to defend their demand to be given a ten per cent quota in jobs. Their demand was set aside by the Supreme Court.

Hooda has bestowed his trust in the people of GSK and informed them that while he is not going to personally come and seek their vote, as he is spending his time travelling to other constituencies, each one of them must work towards ensuring his victory.

The public are living up to this trust because in several interactions people speak highly of many of his transformative projects such as the Metro-Lane extension to Bahadurgarh and Gurugram, and also the 'Padak Lao, Pad Pad Pao' (Bring a medal, get a government job) which proved a big incentive for youngsters.

A land-owning class, the Jats are a powerful community and account for 28 per cent of Haryana's population.

The time, they believe, has now come for them to take revenge.

In a chaupal in the village of Atail, where grey-haired elders sit on their charpois smoking hookahs and playing cards, the only topic of discussion is politics and how the time has come to make a Badlao (Change).

The village of Atail, like all semi-urbanised villages across Haryana is a mix of concrete houses built around courtyards on one side of which have been tied buffaloes that provide an income as also help meet each family's need for milk. Anything extra is sold.

An elderly Jat looked up from his cards and said, 'Ab to roti badlein gae (A colloquial to state the time for change has come).'

A largely farming community, the average Haryanvi is in no mood to forgive the Khattar government for its mishandling of the entire MSP crisis.

To show their anger towards the state government, farmers bodies including the Bharatiya Kisan Naujiwan Union and the Bharatiya Kisan Union Ekta Sidhupur have been camping at Shambu border along with farmers from Punjab from the month of February.

"How many of our have brothers died? And when they gathered at the Shambu border earlier this year, this Khattar ordered tear gas to be fired at them. He put up concertina wires and broke up the roads and iron barricades treating them like criminals," said Pahalwan Singh inhaling the smoke from his hookah with great relish.

His words meet with the approval of his hookah smoking mates.

Amar Singh, a white-haired farmer sitting to his right, nods in agreement.

"They have destroyed the future of thousands of young boys who used to join the army every year with that hare-brained Agnipath scheme," said Amar Singh.

"From the time the scheme has been introduced, only 500 boys have been taken from our state. After four years, what will these boys do once they leave the army -- they will not get jobs even as peons? The Jat regiments are the pride of the Indian army. They have ground our honour to the dust," stated Amar Singh.

He speaks for his community and because this is a refrain heard throughout the state across all communities.

The mishandling of the women wrestlers' protest against former Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh for sexual harassment also continues to find a resonance across the state.

'Hamari betien se cher char kari hai or hamare mukhya mantri kahte hein ki ye shuroo se ek political saajish thi,' remarked another oldie.

Hooda and the Congress party in the state are taking advantage of this sentiment.

'During my regime, Haryana was known for empowering farmers, jawan (youths) and pehlwans (sportspersons) but this government has attacked them by using batons when they were seeking their rights," Hooda repeats in speech after speech.

He assures the public that once the Congress forms the government, each senior citizen will be given Rs 6,000 pension, 200,000 vacant posts in government departments will be filled up and gas cylinders will be sold at Rs 500 each, there will be a legal guarantee on the MSP, and they will receive free medical treatment of Rs 25 lakh.

A resident of Bohar village in GSK says "The BJP has ignored Rohtak district in the last ten years and they are responsible for dividing out society along caste lines. Haryana was never known to be a casteist society, but this saffron party by its very nature is divisive."

"During Hooda's regime, two universities, Indian Institute of Management and many other projects were completed but the BJP has not brought a single big project to our state,' he said.

What is a matter of distress for the public at large is that a small state like Haryana suffers from the highest unemployment rate in the country at a staggering 38 per cent which is 4.5 times more than the national average.

The Opposition parties have gone to town on these alarming figures.

Hooda points out that instead of providing 'permanent jobs to the youth, the government is hiring contractual employees through the Employment Corporation.'

Another complaint being frequently expressed in the state is how the government has set up 40 portals which the public must use to apply for Aadhar card, ration card, house tax, property tax, old age pension and other amenities.

A large cross section of people, especially those in rural parts, do not possess Android phones. Many remain unlettered.

Said one 40-year-old fruit seller, "I have been going week after week to try and get a health card made, but each time, I am told to bring some additional certificate. From where am I expected to produce it?"

Some critics including a former sarpanch believes that whatever Hooda's mistakes may have been in the past, and there were many, for he was charged with favouring the Jat community as also of allegedly amassing huge sums of money in land deals, there is no doubt that he has emerged as the tallest leader of Haryana.

No other leader can match the goodwill he enjoys today across all communities.

Badan Singh, a farmer, says with a sense of pride that Hooda is responsible for putting Garhi-Sampla-Kiloi on the world map.

Elaborating on his unhappiness with the BJP regime, Singh said, "We farmers are still waiting to get compensation for our damaged crops during the last two years. During the Congress regime, we received better rates for our crops. Our electricity bills had been waived off and canals were full of water. The BJP government has worked to push us backward," he added.

This is the language being spoken across the state. The Jat community is known to be dominant in 37 constituencies from which 30 are located in the Rohtak and Hisar divisions.

Interestingly these elections are witnessing the decline of the three powerful families of Devi Lal, Bhajan Lal and Bansi Lal who had dominated Haryana politics from the time of its inception.

The only exception to this trend is the Hooda family which has succeeded in maintaining a significant political presence not just in Rohtak and Sonepat but across Jhind, Sirsa, Panipat and Jhajjar.

The extent of Khattar's unpopularity can be gauged from the fact that just two months before the Lok Sabha election, he was removed and Nayab Singh Saini was brought in the hope that he would help the party win the OBC vote bank since OBCs comprise 40 per cent of the state's population.

Sadly, Saini was been given no say in ticket distribution resulting in several old timers being denied a ticket.

The result several old timers claim the BJP has gone on to reward many new entrants and turncoats with tickets while ignoring those who have been working for years.

The powerful BJP leader Rao Inderjit Singh went public on Saini's selection as chief minister stating that 'even today people wish that I had become CM', he stated.

Not that Congress has not seen its share of revolts with Sirsa MP Kumari Selja staying away from campaigning for over two weeks resulting in rumours that she was switching over to the BJP.

Selja has also been nurturing chief ministerial ambitions and was unhappy that the Hooda camp had succeeded in bagging a lion's share of the assembly tickets.

The problem is that in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, as is the habit with the Congress, ticket distribution was done just four weeks before voting.

Hooda, who had used his last ten years to create networks across the state, used all his skills to ensure that his camp succeeded in securing victories in four key parliamentary constituencies namely Sonepat, Rohtak, Ambala and Hisar.

The Congress won five seats while the BJP had to settle for five.

Hooda is pitted against BJP candidate Manju Hooda who is the daughter of a retired deputy superintendent of police.

She is at the receiving end of much internal bickering as the party ignored senior leaders like Satish N and former MLA Krishan Murti Hooda.

Hooda is being helped by his son Deepender Singh Hooda under whose leadership, the Haryana Congress has launched a state wide 'Haryana Mange Hisaab' Yatra to highlight key issues such as unemployment, irregularities in the Parivar Pehchan Patra, Agniveer recruitment, drug addiction, and corruption scandals in the past decade of BJP governance.

With voting a mere ten days away, the Haryana public are convinced the time is ripe for a change of leadership and hopefully of better governance.

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com