Another crisis in Haryana BJP, Chaudhary Birender Singh threatens to form new party

New Delhi: Woes of the Haryana unit of Bharatiya Janata Party seem to be unending. Senior leader and former Union Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh has opened a front against the Manohar Lal Khattar government and threatened to form a new party.

Sources stated that Birender Singh has indicated formation of a new party at a rally to be held in Jind on October 2. The senior Jat leader has been lashing out at the state leadership of the BJP over the past few weeks.

It is learnt that the Central leadership of the BJP has been apprised of the issues being faced by the Haryana unit and is expected to reach out to the senior Jat leader to resolve the differences, sources said.

Singh is apparently miffed at being sidelined and feels that his potential has not been utilised by the BJP over the past few years, sources said. He has not been accommodated in the Union cabinet during the second term of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, sources stated that his son Brijendra Singh was allocated the Hisar Lok Sabha constituency in 2019 general elections on the understanding that Birender will refrain from asking anything else for himself.

Chaudhary Birender Singh has been fiercely targeting the BJP government in Haryana on many issues including rising crime graph, unemployment, inadequate education and health infrastructure in the state. The senior leader had also alleged that the state government was not allocating or carrying out development works in parts of Haryana dominated by the Jat community.

Birender Singh, is the grandson of farmer leader Sir Chotu Ram and is considered to be the most significant Jat leader within the BJP. The party is trying hard to not seem anti-Jat as the Lok Sabha polls and state Assembly polls are scheduled for the next year and the BJP doesn’t want to anger the electorally influential community.

Jats are one of the caste’s that has not backed the BJP in Haryana due to its consolidation of non-Jat castes over the past decade and the rule of Khattar government in the state. The consolidation of non-Jat votes was used by the saffron unit to ride to victory in 2014 and 2019 state legislative Assembly polls. This makes it necessary for the BJP to hold on to a senior Jat leader like Birender Singh.

With about 27 percent population and a strong hold over land and government jobs, Jats are considered to be one of most dominant communities in the state and can have an effect on the electoral outcome on about 50 Assembly constituencies and at least seven Lok Sabha constituencies.

The saffron party 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 and Union Minister Rao Inderjit Singh.

It is understood that there has also been a growing distance between the Khattar government and the BJP’s local organization, creating trouble in smooth functioning of the saffron unit.

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. Haryana is one of the key state’s in BJP’s strategic electoral plan for 2024 and the party hopes to repeat its 100 percent strike rate in Haryana in 2024 as the Narendra Modi government seeks its third term at the Centre.