With the state getting the green signal from the Punjab and Haryana High Court to conduct the much-awaited panchayat elections, the political temperature in Haryana has started rising. The court’s decision to lift the ban on the conduct of elections comes at a time when all political parties are already carrying out preparations. The court on Wednesday allowed the Haryana government to hold elections to Panchayati Raj institutions.
Will Hooda give an edge to Congress?
The Congress recently made a major change in its state unit. The new state Congress unit now has Hooda in the driver’s seat and the party hopes that under him will help the party regain lost ground. Let us inform that the Congress has appointed Udaybhan, a very close aide of Hooda, as Haryana State President.
At the same time, the Aam Aadmi Party is also eager to establish a foothold in the state after the resounding victory of Punjab. However, it is not yet clear whether the alliance partners BJP and JJP will contest the panchayat elections together.
The state government, which includes the JJP, is already doing everything possible to woo the rural voters. The BJP-JJP coalition government has recently been giving free mobile phones to more than 5 lakh students of government schools ranging from free tablets to village numbers to appease rural voters. Now almost on the verge of extinction, INLD is also measuring the length and breadth of the state with the aim of trying its luck and making contact with many people.
Panchayat elections will be a major local political contest ahead of the assembly elections to be held in October 2024, immediately after the next Lok Sabha elections. The electoral contest will be a litmus test for the BJP and the JJP. This will be because rural voters in the state will get a chance to express themselves electorally for the first time after the end of the massive farmers’ protest that lasted more than a year.
BJP started besieging Rudda in his house
The Indian Express, quoting sources, writes that the way both the BJP and the JJP are running their ‘Public Connect’ programme, it seems that they will contest the elections separately. The Congress is also trying to form a united front despite infighting in the state unit.
While Bhupinder Hooda has strengthened after Kumari Selja replaced her loyalist Uday Bhan as Congress state chief, the BJP is targeting Hooda’s home turf Rohtak. Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar addressed a gathering in Rohtak on Wednesday and made several announcements.
Khattar, state BJP president Om Prakash Dhankhar, several cabinet ministers of the BJP have been actively visiting several districts of the state for the past several weeks after the party announced the joining of 21 lakh families in 21 days. The Dushyant Chautala-led JJP is also expanding its cadre. Let us inform that the tenure of Gram Panchayats in Haryana has ended on February 23, 2021.