The battle for khapland with 90 seats and 1.62 crore voters, has more than symbolic value for both Congress and the BJP given its proximity to Delhi and the fact that land scams in the state played a key role in tarnishing the UPA government's image ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Among the major parties, only INLD and BJP have announced partial lists of their candidates. The Congress has so far withheld its list fearing an exodus.
The elections will be a litmus test for the BJP as it is hoping to ride the euphoria of the Lok Sabha elections to form government here for the first time since Haryana was formed in 1966.
The saffron party had swept Haryana in May, winning seven of the 10 parliamentary seats. It even ended its three-year-old alliance with Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) after Kuldeep Bishnoi refused to fight on fewer seats.
"People will vote against corruption by Congress and in favour of development promised by BJP. We are confident of getting two-thirds majority," information and broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar said at the BJP headquarters.
The party has so far been part of a non-Jat alliance in Haryana, largely because of HJC. Now that it is on its own it has started wooing the influential Jat community. Still, BJP president Amit Shah's decision to go it alone appears audacious, considering that the party could boast of limited social and geographical base prior to Lok Sabha elections in which nationwide 'Modi wave' played a crucial role. BJP's first list of 43 candidates had as many as nine leaders who had migrated recently from other parties.
The Congress, on its part, badly needs to win the polls to beat the perception that it is a declining force. A victory would help revive the organizational morale, which has taken a beating after the Lok Sabha poll drubbing. "Looking at the response from people in recent days, I can tell you that the Congress will return to power for a third term," said chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who became chief minister in March 2005 said.
Sources added that the INLD is seeing possibilities of resurgence. Its leader Abhay Singh Chautala said, "The model code would restrain the Hooda government from committing unconstitutional activities". The government has announced a slew of goodies in the past couple of months, including higher salaries for government employees and better pensions for the aged.
Opposition leaders have been claiming that corruption would be a major issue in the polls but Hooda claims he would fight on developmental plank. In 2009 polls, Congress won 40 seats but Hooda managed to form the government with the help of independents and HJC's defectors, breaking a three-decade old jinx of the incumbent governments failing to return to power in Haryana.
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